SEYMOUR  DURST 


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ITS  HISTORY,  ITS  PRESENT  POSITION  IN  THE  INSURANCE 
WORLD,  ITS  HOME  OFFICE  BUILDING  AND  ITS 
WORK  CARRIED  ON  THEREIN 


NEW  YORK 

The  Metropolitan  Life  Insurance  Company 
1908 


(![)fttrprs 


John  R.  HEGEMAN,  President 

Haley  Fiske,  Vice-President 

GEORGE  H.  GASTON,  Second  Vice-President 

George  B.  Woodward,  Third  Vice-President 

Frank  O.  Avres,  Fourth  Vice-President 

James  M.  Craig,  Actuary 

Frederick  H.  EckiJR,  Treasurer 

Walter  Stabler.  Comptroller 

James  S.  Roberts,  Secretary 

J.  J.  Thompson,  Assistant  Secretary 


T.  R.  Richardson,  Assistant  Secretary 
John  R.  HEGEMAN,  Jr.,  Assistant  Secretary 
F.  V.  Taylor,  Assistant  Secretary 
Frederick  A.  BETTS,  Assistant  Secretary 
Stewart  E.  Woodford,  Counsel 
Thomas  H.  Willard,  M.D.,  Medical  Director 
Augustus  S.  Knight,  M.D.,  Medical  Director 
W.  S.  MANNERS,  M.D.,  Asst.  Medical  Director 
E-  M.  HoLDEN,  M.D.,  Asst.  Medical  Director 
T>.  M.  GedgE,  M.D.,  Asst.  Medical  Director 


I.  J.  CahEN,  Manager  Ordinary  Department  Charles  G.  ReiTER,  Assistant  Actuary 

Jacob  ChadEaynE,  Mgr.  Intermediate  Branch        [am US  C.  Brown,  Assistant  Actuary 


John  R.  Hegeman 
Silas  B.  Dutch er 
Thomas  E.  James 
Edward  C.  Wallace 
Joseph  P.  Knapp 
Haley  EiskE 


Utrrrtnra 

George  H.  Gaston 
.Stewart  L.  Woodford 
Benjamin  DeF.  CurTiss 
Frank  H.  Major 
James  M.  Craig 
George  B.  Woodward 


John  R.  Hegeman,  Jr. 
Thomas  H.  Hubbard 
John  W.  HollEnback 
William  H.  Crocker 
Henry  Ollesheimer 
Morgan  J.  O'Brien 


flrrfarr 

N  the  year  1903  the  Metropolitan  Life  Insurance  Company  passes 
the  fortieth  year  of  its  history  as  a  life  company,  and  the  same  year 
will  see  practically  finished  its  monumental  Home  Office  building. 
It  is  appropriate  to  mark  these  two  events  with  some  account  of  the 
history  of  the  company  and  its  present  position  in  the  world  of  insurance, 
and  with  a  full  description,  sufficiently  illustrated  to  bring  them  before  the 
eye  of  the  interested  reader,  of  the  building — the  largest  business  building 
in  the  world — of  its  various  novel,  beautiful  and  useful  features  and  of 
the  wonderful  work  carried  on  within  its  walls.  We  hope  the  book  will 
be  of  interest  to  the  field  force,  which  has  made  the  company  what  it  is; 
to  the  policy-holders,  who  indeed  arc  the  company  in  a  very  true  sense, 
and  to  the  tenants  of  the  building  and  their  visitors  and  friends.  The 
building  now  houses  6,000  people,  and  a  count  made  of  those  who  entered 
its  doors  in  one  day — and  that  turned  out  to  be  a  stormy  one — footed  up 
over  23,000;  with  the  tower  and  the  rest  of  the  building  completed,  some 
10,000  people  will  make  their  business  home  here — a  goodly  city.  All 
who  come  under  its  ample  roof  are  welcome,  all  who  accept  policies  of 
insurance  issued  from  it  are  members  of  our  household,  and  all  who  read 
this  book  are  invited  to  become  part  of  our  happy  family. 


ulitau  3Gtft  Jhtsimmrr 
(Cimtpang 


Gfompatuj 


ITS   HISTORY.  ITS   PRESENT  POSITION   IN  THE  INSURANCE 
WORLD.  ITS  HOME  OFFICE  BUILDING  AND  ITS 
WORK  CARRIED  ON  THEREIN 


Tiitfitnnral  Bkttih 

^rfN  the  year  1863  there  was  incorporated  by  the  state  of  New  York 
T  I  the  National  Life  and  Limb  Insurance  Company,  the  object  of  which 
^— *  was  to  insure,  against  death  and  casualty,  the  soldiers  and  sailors 
engaged  in  the  Civil  War.  The  name  of  this  company  was  subsequently 
changed  to  the  National  Life  and  Travelers  Insurance  Company. 

In  1866  two  new  corporations  were  formed  from  it,  namely,  the 
National  Life  Insurance  Company  and  the  National  Travelers  Insurance 
Company;  the  life  insurance  business  being  transacted  by  the  National 
Life,  and  the  National  Travelers  devoting  itself  to  the  casualty  business. 
The  National  Life  Insurance  Company  passed  into  the  hands  of  a 
receiver  in  the  year  1873. 

The  National  Travelers  Insurance  Company,  however,  soon  made 
application  to  the  Legislature  for  permission  to  engage  in  the  business 
of  life  insurance,  and  in  1868  its  name  was  changed  to  "Metropolitan 
Life  Insurance  Company,"  as  will  be  seen  from  the  following,  which 
appeared  in  the  New  York  Insurance  Report  for  the  year  1868. 

*'  The  National  Travelers  Insurance  Company,  which  was  incorporated  May  5, 
1866,  as  a  casualty  insurance  company,  now  appears  as  a  pure  and  simple  life  insurance 
company,  unembarrassed  by  any  of  the  complications  of  an  accident  or  casualty 
insurance  business.  This  change  was  effected  with  the  approval  of  the  superintendent 
under  and  by  virtue  of  a  special  act  of  the  Legislature  (see  Chap.  29,  Laws  of  1868), 
and  the  company  now  starts  almost  de  novo  the  Metropolitan  Life  Insurance  Company. 

"The  calendar  year  1S67  shows  only  four  new  life  insurance  companies  incorpo- 
rated during  the  year,  one  of  which  disappeared  almost  at  birth,  leaving  three  only  as 

5 


against  five  new  companies  in  1866,  and  three  already  organized  (including  the  Metro- 
politan) in  the  year  1868.  The  additional  new  companies  already  projected  for  1868 
will  doubtless  mark  its  calendar  as  incorporating  the  largest  number  of  life  insurance 
institutions  of  any  year  in  our  state  history." 

We  quote  the  last  paragraph  simply  to  indicate  to  the  reader  the 
mania  that  existed  at  that  time  for  the  incorporation  of  life  insurance 
companies;  and  perhaps  it  will  not  be  amiss  to  state  that  of  all  the  com- 
panies to  which  the  superintendent  alluded  as  having  been  organized 
in  the  years  1866,  1867  and  1868,  together  with  all  those  which  were 
in  process  of  organization  and  which  subsequently  organized  in  that  year, 
the  Metropolitan  is  the  only  surviving  company. 

It  need  not  be  inferred  from  this  that  the  pathway  of  the  Metro- 
politan was  strewn  with  roses,  or  that  it  did  not  have  difficulties  to  meet 
and  obstacles  to  surmount.  The  care  and  anxiety  inseparable  from  the 
successful  establishment  of  a  new  enterprise  in  the  face  of  severe  com- 
petition on  the  part  of  stronger  rivals  were  not  strangers  to  the  officers 
of  this  company. 

In  the  year  1869  and  for  many  years  thereafter  the  company, 
through  another  organization,  did  a  large  business  on  the  weekly  premium 
plan,  in  addition  to  that  secured  on  annual,  semi-annual  and  quarterly 
bases.  Its  record  of  policies  issued  and  in  force  each  year  is  contained 
in  the  following  table  (up  to  and  including  1879,  but  excluding  the 
Industrial  business  issued  in  the  last  six  weeks  of  that  year,  which  was 
the  time  of  its  Industrial  beginning). 


J  Death  Claims 

ISSUED 

IN  FORCE  DECEMBER  31st 

and  Matured 

YEAR 

j  Endowments 

Number 

Amount 

Number 

Amount 

Amount 

1867 

403 

$9  79,404 

346 

*>809,400 

S  0 

1868 

1,447 

4,340,900 

1,433 

4,077,400 

5,000 

1869 

2,930 

4,856,839 

3,560 

6,878,139 

20,500 

1870 

9,1 13 

1  1,078,199 

9,331 

13,335,108 

56,770 

1871 

7,602 

8,312,930 

1 1,299 

14,989,582 

87,500 

1872 

8,642 

1 1,556,663 

15,345 

20,546,341 

165,000 

1873 

12,242 

11,753,399 

18,698 

26,383,865 

197,565 

1874 

8,280 

1 1,870,435 

18,972 

27,385  145 

238,070 

1875 

4,830 

6,836,446 

17,441 

25,107,087 

288,556 

1876 

4,1 16 

5,217,032 

17,508 

24,223,764 

235,771 

1877 

2,405 

2,391,442 

1  1 ,950 

16,536,814 

215,553 

1878 

984 

1,1  75,521 

10,016 

13,903,156 

267,984 

1879 

510 

537,181 

7,680 

1  1,150,349 

217,500 

6 


A  glance  at  the  figures  for  the  last  few  years  in  this  table  shows  a 
rapidly  declining  volume  of  business. 

No  proof  was  needed  to  demonstrate  that  there  was  energy  enough 
to  prosecute  the  business,  for  that  had  already  been  shown  in  the  com- 
pany's past  career;  as  in  1873  it  occupied  third  place  in  the  number  of 
policies  written,  out  of  fifty-six  companies  transacting  business  in  the 
state  of  New  York.  The  simple  facts  were,  however,  that  the  company 
was  comparatively  young,  its  assets  small  and  its  surplus  meager.  To 
have  continued  an  aggressive  policy,  with  its  attendant  expense,  when 
the  older  and  larger  companies  were  rapidly  increasing  the  rates  of  com- 
missions, would  have  reduced  the  surplus,  already  small,  and  probably 
wiped  it  out  altogether,  with  the  result  of  placing  the  company  in  a 
position  not  encouraging  for  its  future.  While  it  is  true  that  the 
Metropolitan  had  been  issuing  policies  on  the  weekly  premium  basis,  as 
above  stated,  since  the  year  1869,  and  the  Prudential  Insurance  Company 
of  Newark  had  been  writing  business  since  1876,  restricting  its  efforts 
up  to  1879  to  the  three  states  of  New  Jersey,  New  York  and  Pennsyl- 
vania, and  the  John  Hancock  of  Boston  had  also  engaged  in  it, 
yet  Industrial  insurance  was  not  widely  known  in  this  country  until 
the  Metropolitan  entered  the  field  in  the  last  year. 

In  the  early  part  of  1879  the  subject  of  introducing  that  plan  of 
insurance  in  this  country  after  the  general  working  methods  of  the  great 
London  company  was  rediscussed  by  the  officers  of  the  Metropolitan, 
who  had  been  considering  it,  off  and  on,  for  several  years  previously, 
and  it  was  then  determined  to  give  the  business  a  trial.  Industrial 
insurance  is  insurance  adapted  to  the  working  classes  by  providing 
amounts  of  insurance  based  on  weekly  premiums  of  five  cents  and 
multiples  thereof,  collected  by  the  company  at  the  homes  of  the 
insured. 

It  required  more  than  ordinary  courage  and  faith  to  branch  off 
from  the  old  and  well-tried  forms  of  insurance  to  enter  this  new  field. 
The  English  company  had  appeared  to  be  a  wonderful  success,  but 
whether  the  system  would  prove  successful  in  this  country  was  an  open 
question.  In  the  first  place,  it  was  not  known  whether  it  would  be 
popular  among  the  industrial  classes  of  America,  and  even  if  a  large 
volume  of  business  could  be  written,  there  was  absolutely  no  criterion 
as  to  the  probable  death  rate,  or  whether  enough  of  the  premium  income 


7 


could  be  retained  to  meet  the  legal  reserve  required  by  law.  The  pre- 
sumption was  not  altogether  in  favor  of  success,  because  the  great  English 
company  established  its  own  rule  of  computing  the  reserve  liability,  and 
could  at  all  times,  therefore,  show  a  surplus;  while  in  this  country  the 
rigid  rules  of  valuation  called  for  a  high  reserve,  failure  to  meet  which 
would  mean  disaster. 

To  fully  appreciate  this  statement  it  is  only  necessary  to  say  that 
it  was  not  until  the  end  of  1886,  or  thirty-eight  years  after  its  incorpo- 
ration, that  the  Prudential  Insurance  Company  of  London,  which  then 
had  over  seven  million  policies  in  force,  adopted  the  rule  practised  in 
this  country,  known  as  the  net  premium  basis  of  valuation.  The  actuary 
of  that  company,  in  his  report  concerning  this  matter,  said:  "It  may 
be  contended  that  the  principles  which  are  adopted  in  the  valuation  of 
Ordinary  assurances  are  not  applicable  to  Industrial  risks,  but  it  must 
be  a  source  of  the  highest  gratification  to  every  one  connected  with 
the  company  to  feel  that  the  business  of  this  branch  will  now  bear  a 
test  so  severe  and  one  hitherto  unknown  in  the  history  of  Industrial 
Insurance."  He  must  have  meant  the  history  in  Great  Britain;  the  test 
was  borne  by  the  Metropolitan  in  the  United  States  from  the  start. 

But,  after  the  decision  of  the  Metropolitan  officers  was  arrived  at, 
the  work  was  prosecuted  with  the  utmost  vigor.  Several  companies 
were  already  in  the  field  and  were  operating  in  various  states.  Some 
one  company  must  stand  at  the  head,  and  the  Metropolitan  determined 
to  push  to  the  front  and  hold  the  leadership.  Rather  than  rely  wholly 
upon  the  slow  process  of  educating  men  here  to  the  intricacies  and 
difficulties  of  field  work,  the  company  imported  from  across  the  water 
a  large  number  of  men  who  were  experts  in  the  prosecution  of  the 
business,  and  who  (with  their  families)  were  located  in  the  prominent 
cities  of  the  country.  To  these,  in  addition  to  its  own  home  force,  was 
assigned  the  task  of  laying  the  foundation;  of  educating  a  body  of  efficient 
co-workers;  training  them  to  the  best  methods  of  house-to-house  can- 
vassing and  collecting;  perfecting  them  in  the  intricate  matters  of 
bookkeeping,  accounts  and  the  numerous  forms  inherent  to  a  business 
of  so  much  detail;  and  thus  developing  in  others  the  powers  of  supervision 
and  leadership.  Many  of  the  men  who  joined  the  company  in  the  very 
earliest  years  of  its  operations  are  in  the  active  service  of  the  company 
to-day,  and  are  justly  proud  of  their  connection  with  it. 


8 


The  first  Industrial  policy  in  the  Metropolitan  was  written  in 
November,  1879,  and  in  1880  it  wrote  215,878  policies.  When  these 
results  were  first  published  insurance  men  were  astonished,  not  thinking  it 
possible  for  such  a  volume  of  business  to  be  written  by  one  company. 

When  we  consult  the  New  York  Life  Insurance  Report,  giving  the 
total  business  transacted  throughout  the  country  during  the  year  1880  by 
all  the  companies  writing  Ordinary  business,  and  find  that  the  aggregate 
number  of  policies  written  by  those  companies  was  72,267,  it  is  not 
surprising  that  the  attention  of  the  insurance  world  should  be  focused 
upon  this  particular  phase  of  the  business.  The  Superintendent  of 
Insurance  of  New  York  State  wrote  in  his  Annual  Report  in  1881: 
"  This  class  of  insurance  is  somewhat  new  and  is  yet  an  experiment  in 
this  country,  but  thus  far  it  seems  to  meet  with  success,  which  promises 
well  for  its  future  growth  and  prosperity;  *  *  *  one  company  in  New 
York,  the  Metropolitan,  has  issued  during  the  past  year  more  than  two 
hundred  thousand  of  these  policies." 

The  Prudential  of  Newark,  operating  since  1876,  had  on  January  1, 
1880,  43,715  policies  in  force,  limited,  as  already  stated,  to  three  states; 
while  the  Metropolitan,  in  its  first  year,  wrote  over  200,000  policies. 
The  lead  thus  taken  by  the  Metropolitan  has  been  maintained  without 
interruption  during  all  the  intervening  years,  and  its  remarkable  growth 
is  worthy  of  a  place  in  the  history  of  the  nation. 

The  income  of  the  Prudential  of  London  in  1854  (the  first  year 
of  Industrial  insurance)  was  $15,375;  in  1864,  $381,355;  in  1874, 
$2,898,060;  in  1884,  thirty  years  after  it  began  Industrial  business, 
SI 5, 308, 370.  The  income  of  the  Metropolitan  in  1879  (the  first  year 
of  Industrial  insurance)  was  $567,598;  in  1889,  $9,863,819;  in  1899, 
$28,798,714;  and  in  1907,  $73,114,161!  Thus  in  thirty  years  the  Met- 
ropolitan will  have  reached  more  than  five  times  the  income  reported 
by  the  Prudential  at  the  end  of  the  same  period  of  its  history.  Who 
will  venture  to  say  what  the  income  will  be  ten  years  hence? 

The  expenses  of  establishing  a  "plant,"  of  vigorously  pushing  the 
business,  of  meeting  the  high  rate  of  mortality  among  the  industrial  class, 
and  of  attaining  and  maintaining  the  leadership  of  the  business,  were  so 
great  that  it  was  deemed  wise,  in  1883,  to  seek  legislative  permission  to 
increase  the  capital  stock  of  the  company.  That  permission  being 
promptly  granted,  $400,000  was  added,  making  the  capital  $500,000. 

9 


It  is  interesting,  when  considering  the  company's  present  proud 
position,  to  note  how,  in  its  earlier  days,  it  passed  through  difficulties 
so  great  that  by  many  its  future  was  deemed  problematical. 

According  to  the  Massachusetts  Insurance  Report  (the  Massachusetts 
standard  of  valuation  required  a  much  higher  reserve  up  to  1887  than 
did  the  New  York  standard;  then,  in  accordance  with  a  law  passed  by 
the  Legislature,  the  New  York  standard  was  changed),  the  surplus  was 
$298,791.13,  December  31,  1882.  On  the  31st  of  December,  1883,  the 
surplus  was  $331,474.24,  or  an  increase  of  only  $32,683.11  over  the 
previous  year,  notwithstanding  that  $400,000  had  been  paid  in  cash 
by  stockholders  during  the  year!  At  the  end  of  1884  the  surplus  was 
reduced  to  $201,209.25.  It  is  true  there  was  some  consolation  in  the 
fact  that  the  loss  was  not  so  great  as  in  1883,  but  the  question 
naturally  arose,  How  long  can  this  thing  last?  When  is  the  tide  to 
turn?  The  feeling  of  apprehension  that  prevailed  at  the  end  of  1885 
can  perhaps  be  better  imagined  than  described  when  it  is  stated  that 
the  surplus  had  dropped  to  $139,651.41,  which  was  the  equivalent  of  a  loss 
of  $559,139.72  in  three  years!  Of  course  this  amount  had  been  absorbed 
mainly  in  establishing  numerous  agencies  in  many  states,  embracing 
thousands  of  men;  in  the  vast  amount  of  canvassing  literature  and  other 
material  necessary  to  the  work;  in  large  accessions  to  the  Home  Office 
clerical  force,  etc.;  but  in  computing  the  assets  no  credit  could  be  taken 
for  these,  and  the  only  question  was  whether  the  company  would  be 
permitted  to  maintain  its  hold  long  enough  to  demonstrate  the  wisdom 
of  its  expenditures  and  the  value  of  its  plant. 

The  tide  began  to  turn  in  1886,  seven  years  after  the  corner-stone 
had  been  laid,  and  at  the  end  of  that  year  the  surplus  had  increased  to 
$258,123.03,  and  continued  to  augment  so  rapidly,  that  the  company  has 
been  able  during  the  past  fourteen  years  to  grant  concessions  to  policy- 
holders, the  cash  value  of  which  exceeded  thirteen  millions  of  dollars. 

From  the  end  of  1879  to  the  end  of  1891  the  number  of  policies  in 
force  in  the  Ordinary  Department  fell  from  7,680  to  3,153,  because  little 
effort  was  made  to  secure  new  policy-holders,  though  the  interests  of 
existing  policy-holders  were  guarded  with  the  utmost  care.  During  this 
entire  period  the  officers  of  the  company  were  men  of  one  idea  as  to  new 
business,  not  deviating  in  the  least  until  that  one  idea  had  developed 
a  healthy,  vigorous,  gigantic  institution  whose  ramifications  extended 


in 


to  every  city,  town  and  village  of  any  importance  in  twenty  states,  in 
addition  to  the  District  of  Columbia  and  the  Dominion  of  Canada,  and 
embraced  with  its  arms  of  protection  more  than  two  millions  of  policy- 
holders. Then,  realizing  that  its  army  of  7,000  agents  must  of  necessity 
come  in  contact  with  some  people  who  desired  and  could  afford  to  pay 
for  larger  sums  than  the  Industrial  Department  was  designed  to  cover, 
it  was  decided,  in  1892,  to  revive  the  Ordinary  Department.  With  this 
object  in  view  new  rates  of  premium  were  computed,  covering  the 
Ordinary  forms  of  insurance  and  some  special  forms,  but  all  on  the  stock, 
or  non-participating,  plan. 


Death  Claims 

ISSUED 

IN  FORCE  DECEMBER  31st 

and  Matured 

YEAR 

Endowments 

avmber 

Amount 

\ UMBER 

Amount 

Amount 

1880 

o  i  U 

6,o9o 



$243,434 

1881 

202 

280,358 

6,325 

9,433,733 

248,598 

1882 

172 

215,639 

5,843 

8,566,445 

165,236 

1883 

239 

256,805 

5,006 

6,888,782 

143,076 

1  Q^iJ. 

1  oo*r 

242 

239,292 

4,448 

5,692,785 

1885 

184 

176,980 

4,082 

5,062,985 

136,152 

1886 

147 

150,535 

3,759 

4,604,351 

124,415 

1887 

127 

135,100 

3,524 

4,272,790 

1 3 1 , 1 06 

1888 

185 

235,435 

3,379 

4,067,777 

121,273 

1889 

242 

277,572 

3,319 

3,986,592 

86  796 

1890 

296 

371,741 

3,287 

3,922,486 

103,950 

1891 

178 

193,511 

3,153 

3,767,882 

1 1 1,355 

1892 

1,704 

2,002,641 

4,446 

5,316,300 

96,654 

1893 

5,486 

6,123,656 

8,162 

9,259,471 

168,222 

1894 

12,326 

14,099,859 

15,744 

17,861,196 

135,545 

1895 

15,572 

17,822,542 

23,253 

26,570,719 

221,773 

1896 

16,483 

16,314,767 

30,835 

33,097,851 

360,071 

1897 

36,663 

28,505,975 

52,789 

49,141,366 

344,488 

1898 

55,189 

45,058,562 

82,511 

74,780,578 

481,316 

1899 

79,549 

65,650,789 

124,948 

1 1 1  901,834 

765  786 

1900 

94,506 

85,026,924 

166,990 

154,900,241 

1,100  334 

1901 

1 15,431 

84,334,849 

225,640 

195,485,753 

1,538,999 

1902 

132,964 

101,812,141 

278,360 

237,490,121 

1,703,489 

1903 

137,917 

100,920,21 1 

336,570 

282,505,630 

2,1 16,649 

1904 

178,312 

131,312,194 

415,177 

342,535,052 

2,752,293 

1905 

185,741 

134,709,960 

477,547 

388,585,457 

3  064,141 

*1906 

152,300 

112,886,895 

531,467 

428,184,083 

3,083,012 

*1907 

196,411 

122,407,935 

606,922 

487,063,095 

3,759,443 

Total, 

$23,450,356 

*On  a  "paid-for"  basis. 


During  the  twelve  years  alluded  to  above  the  agents  of  the  com- 
pany had  devoted  their  entire  time  and  attention  to  Industrial  insurance, 


11 


so  that  the  great  bulk  of  the  field  force  was  like  an  undrilled  army  in 
the  Ordinary  Department,  being  wholly  unqualified  to  successfully  solicit 
this  form  of  insurance,  and  unable  to  compete  with  the  agents  of  other 
companies.  They  were  unacquainted  with  the  various  plans  offered  by 
those  companies,  and  were  not  very  well  versed  in  the  plans  offered  by 
their  own  company.  This  condition  necessitated  a  "Campaign  of  Educa- 
tion," which  was  vigorously  prosecuted,  and  with  results  which  will  be 
observed  in  the  table  on  page  11,  beginning  with  the  year  1892. 

The  record  in  the  growth  of  business  in  the  Ordinary  Department 
since  1891  is  evidence  of  wonderful  results  in  the  number  of  policies 
and  amount  of  insurance,  and  when  it  is  added  that  this  business  at 
the  end  of  1907  represented  annual  premiums  amounting  to  more  than 
$20,000,000  and  that  the  reserve  liability  reached  the  enormous  sum  of 
$70,000,000,  some  conception  can  be  had  of  the  results  of  the  labor  in 
this  Department  during  the  sixteen  years  ending  with  1907. 

In  1879  the  Metropolitan  was  toward  the  rear  of  the  insurance 
army.  During  that  year  there  were  thirty-two  companies  operating  in 
the  state  of  New  York,  and  the  Metropolitan  stood  number  thirty-one 
in  amount  written,  number  twenty-three  in  total  income,  and  number 
twenty-two  in  amount  of  insurance  in  force.  Of  the  thirty-two  companies 
alluded  to  above,  four  have  since  dropped  from  the  list,  and  eight  new  ones 
have  been  added,  so  that  there  were  thirty-six  companies  authorized  to 
do  business  in  the  state  in  1907.  Many  of  these  companies  were  strong 
institutions  in  1879,  with  agencies  firmly  established,  and  doing  a  thriving 
business.  There  were  giants  among  them  even  at  that  early  day.  He 
would  have  been  a  bold  prophet  who  at  that  time  would  have  predicted 
that  in  fifteen  short  years  this  modest  company  would  force  itself 
ahead,  and  occupy  the  very  first  position  with  respect  to  insurance 
written,  and  the  fourth  with  respect  to  income  and  amount  of  insurance 
in  force.  Yet  these  were  the  respective  positions  of  the  Metropolitan 
as  far  back  as  1894  and  maintained  each  successive  year  with  respect 
to  insurance  written,  and  it  now  occupies  second  place  with  respect 
to  insurance  in  force.  During  the  year  1907  the  Metropolitan  wrote 
more  insurance  and  gained  more  insurance  in  force  than  all  the  other 
New  York  companies  combined.  At  the  end  of  1907  there  were  eighteen 
companies  engaged  in  transacting  Industrial  business,  with  Industrial 
policies  in  force  at  that  time  as  indicated  by  the  table  following. 


12 


By  subtracting  the  Metropolitan's  figures  from  the  total  there 
remain  9,820,668  policies,  insuring  SI, 258, 236, 529;  so  that  the  Metro- 
politan had  nearly  the  same  number  of  policies  in  force  as  the  other 
seventeen  companies  combined,  and  about  Sf>(),000,000  more  insurance. 


Xr.MBER 

Amount 

.He  LI  UUU11  Idll  

7,U1J  ,UO  / 

C  r    7  17  QQ7  4.QA 

A  ^9  7Q 1 

T  *~\  Vi  »i  I— T  o  1 1  iT",/"*!.*- 

1  AQ9  IQ'i 

97  7  1  1  f.  1  f^f. 
—  /  vj  ,  1  1  0 ,  1  DO 

Life  Insurance  Company  of  Virginia  

471,209 

52,895,697 

Western  &  Southern  

302,845 

33,529,081 

Colonial  of  New  Jersey 

131,595 

15,629,430 

Baltimore  Life  

111,922 

9,947,906 

Mutual  of  Baltimore  

56,534 

6,656,921 

Boston  Mutual  

41,957 

8,104,783 

Eureka,  Baltimore   

34,061 

1,809,796 

Equitable,  District  of  Columbia  

29,375 

3,559,538 

American  National,  Texas  

27,223 

4,303,311 

Immediate  Benefit,  Baltimore  

25,037 

2,281,583 

Commonwealth,  Kentucky  

18,929 

2,846,978 

American  Life,  Florida   

2,256 

345,087 

Home,  Delaware  

9,944 

950,579 

West  Coast,  California  

10,986 

1,718,844 

Southwestern,  Texas  

1,607 

249,657 

Totals  .... 

18,833,755 

S2, 576, 120, 015 

When  one  considers  that  the  average  Industrial  premium  in  the 
Metropolitan  is  about  ten  cents,  and  that  it  takes  one  hundred  of  them 
to  make  ten  dollars,  it  is  a  cause  for  congratulation  among  the  friends 
of  the  company  to  know  that,  in  the  states  of  New  York,  Massachusetts, 
Maine,  New  Hampshire,  Rhode  Island,  Connecticut,  Maryland,  Virginia, 
Kentucky,  Tennessee,  Ohio,  Missouri  and  the  District  of  Columbia,  it 
received  during  the  year  1907  more  dollars  in  premiums  than  any  other 
company.  It  is  not  to  be  understood,  however,  that  these  results  have 
been  secured  exclusively  from  Industrial  premiums.  The  premiums  from 
the  Ordinary  Department  have  been  of  material  help  in  this  direction. 

3Fmattrial  Gkmutl)  of  X\)t  (Eomwattg 

A  glance  at  the  column  in  the  following  table,  representing  the 
assets  of  the  company  at  the  end  of  each  year,  is  exceedingly 
interesting. 

It  will  be  observed  that  at  the  end  of  1882  the  total  amount  was 
actually  less  than  at  the  end  of  1876;  but  when  the  end  of  the  next 


13 


Table  Showing  the  Assets,  Liabilities  and  Surplus  at  the  End  of  Each  Year, 
also  Total  Claims  Paid,  Compiled  from  the  Official  Reports  of 
the  Insurance  Department  of  the  State  of  New  York. 


Year 

Assets 

Lia  BILITIES 

Surplus 

Total 
Claims  Paid 

1  OOO 

^400,04  / .  1  0 

jplol,//  l.U/ 

07Q   07A  A  7 

;Szoo,z  /6.U0 

*^  C   A  O  1    A  A 

3f>o,0o  1  .UU 

1  ooV 

cn,1    £  A  £    2  O 

7  C  Q  A  /I  0  in 

O  7A  A  AO  07 

zjO,4oz.V  / 

OI     1  7  A  AA 

z  1 , 1  oU.UU 

1 0  /  U 

0O0,  V  14.1V 

707   OA7   /I  *7 
/  Z  1  .VO  /  .4/ 

IAS  O  A  A  70 

iuo,y4o. /z 

C  f    7  7 A  AA 
56, / /U.UU 

1071 

1  O  /  1 

1    1  AO   7AA   "7  0 

1,10/,/  (Jo.  /o 

yo4,  w  1  .uu 

OAA   "2  7/1  QO 

zUU,o  O4.0Z 

Q7    CAA  A  A 
0  /  ,  OUU.UU 

lo  12. 

1    A  O  1   /I  AO  *7  *7 

1 ,4zo  ,4Uz .  /  / 

1  on  7?n  aa 
1  ,zoz,  1  oV  .UU 

10A  AA7  77 

iyu,66o.  /  / 

1  A  C   AAA  AA 

1 6o,UU0.UU 

1  Q  7  7 

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1     CQO  TOO 

1  ,ooV,  /zo.oo 

1  a  0  a  qc  i  aa 
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1AQ   Q,1S  7A 
1 00,040.00 

1A7    CA/1  AA 

1 V  /  ,064.UU 

1  Q  7  A 

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1    Q/1Q   AQQ   A  7 

1  ,o4o,Uoo.oo 

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1 ,o4U,  1  88,  /0 

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zu  /  ,oyy  .0  / 

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zoo,U6y.o7 

1  O  *7  C 

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1 , 11 1 ,  /y  1  r)S 

O"30    ,1Q^1  AA 

zoz, 484.U6 

OOO    CCA  IO 

z88,006. 1  0 

1  0  /o 

O    1  A  C    1(17  11 

z,  14o,  Ivo.z  1 

1    A  1  C  OO  7   /I  Q 

1  ,y  1  0,Vz  /  .40 

OOO  OA  Z   1  1 

zzy,zoo.  /  0 

07C    771  AA 

zoo,  l/\  .UU 

1077 
1  0  /  / 

O  AQ  7    COT  yl  7 

z, (Jo/, ooz. 4/ 

1 , /yo,ozz.zo 

OOI    7 A A  0  1 
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1 0/0 

O   A  Q  1    AQ1  Ofl 

z,(Jo4,Vo  1  .VV 

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1 , / 0 1  ,o4o.Uz 

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z6/,Vo4.UU 

1 070 

1 0  /V 

O  AOO  /I  QO  /I  C 

z,(Jzz  ,4oz.4o 

1    A  C  O   Q  A  1    ^  1 

1 ,0 0z,oU 1 .0  1 

7AO  AQA  Q/1 
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017    CAO  AO 

z  1  /,oyo.6o 

1  Q  O  A 
1  OOU 

1    O/t  7  Oil    7  0 

1  ,V4/  ,oz  1 .  /V 

1    coo    707  "27 
1  ,005, .5  0  /  .OO 

1  ZCl  A  1  4  /1A 

o0y,4o4.4o 

OOC    7AO  C7 

zoo, 060.00 

1  DO  1 
1  OO  1 

1    O  7  1  C\A  7  AQ 

1  ,V  /  O  ,U4  /  .Uo 

1    C07  DC?  AA 

1 ,0V/  ,Voo.UU 

77c  AO/1  AQ 

0  /  o,uy4.uo 

77A    1A7  7A 

0  /y,  1  UO.OU 

10  0  0 

1  ooz 

O  AA1   /I  Ayl    1  "2 

Z,(JUz,4o4. 1  0 

1   AOO   CC7  AA 
l,OZ/,Jj/ .Uu 

7  70  OA  7  17 

0 /y ,yu  / . 1 0 

A  A  C    C  1  A  7A 
440,0  1  V  .  /  U 

1  00  1 

1 OOO 

z,  1  oo,ozz.Z4 

1    CCO            A  A 
1  ,00V, Z  04. UU 

f  0  7   7  A  Q  OI 
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A  A  O    O  CO  OA 

o4o,ooo.zy 

1  O  O  A 

1  oo4 

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z,0U4,UU4.o  / 

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1  ,oVU,ooz.oz 

A  1  7    1  O  A  O  S 
0  1  O  ,  1  Z  U .  Z  0 

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1    OQ7   7AC  17 

1  ,Z8 / , /60. lo 

1  Q  Q  A 
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1   7  A  ^  O  7  A  A  1 

0,  /Uo,  V  /U.O  1 

7  nil  O 7/1    C  Q 

z ,  y  1  0  ,  v  /  4 . 0  0 

701    OOA  A7 

/  y  1  ,y  vo.uo 

1     COO    OH  7A 

I ,o8z,o4z.o9 

1  QQ7 

loo  / 

A  O  A  7  A  0  A  0/1 
4,VU  /  ,UZ4.Z4 

/l  A/1  7  A  7  0  1/1 
4,U4o,Ooz.  14 

Q  A  7   700  1A 

000, oyz.  iu 

0    117   7O0  7A 

z, 1 lOjOVz. lb 

1  DQQ 

1  OOO 

A  0  Q  7   7  Q  1    1  Z 

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z,5oz,oo4.zo 

1  00V 

Q   ;07  A  A  Q  7  7 
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7  AAA  OQ/I  Q7 
/  ,UUU,zo4.0  / 

1    S07   1  Q  7  OA 

1  ,oy  / ,  1  oo.yu 

7  A/1  C    1  O/l  77 

o,U4o,  1 V4.  /  7 

1  QOA 

1  oVU 

1A7Q1    1  7;  A| 
lU,/ol,  1  /  o.Ul 

Q  AAA   ^  A1  OA 

0,004, 1 4  j  .yu 

0   1  1  7  A  0  O  11 

z,  1 1  /  ,uzy.  1 1 

7  7C1    COO  7Q 

o,/01,0zz.oo 

1  oni 
1  oV  1 

17  AIA  Q  Q  A  01 

1  o,OZO,Vo4.Z  1 

1A  C  7  Q   1  I  c  m 
I  U.jJo,  1  I  O.Uo 

7AOQ    Q77  1Q 

o,UoO,ooo.  1  0 

A   A  1  7   A  OA  7  c 

4,4  1  o,4zU.  / 5 

1  QO") 

1  oVz 

1  A,    C:  A£    1Q1  OO 

10,oU0,zoz.zZ 

10         1    7  A  C  71 
1  Z ,  00  1,/Oj,/j 

7  A 7/1  SIAzIO 
0,0/4, 010.4V 

A    OAA  OOI    Q  A 

4,  vuu.v  0 1 .00 

1  0V0 

IO  1A  1  7AC  a  a 
1  V,o4o,  /Uo.UO 

I  c  01/1  A  1  C.  1/1 
1  0,Zo4,U  1  0.14 

A    1  AO  A  Q  O  O  0 

4,  iuv,oov.yz 

C    C7C  lOAAA 

0,000, 1  ZU.UV 

1  QQ  1 

1  oV4 

00   "2  OA  AOO  1A 
ZZ,oZo,OZZ.  10 

1  Q  OOO   SO  IOS 

1  o.zvz.ovo.yo 

A  A7/1  AOQ  01 
4,Uo4,UZ0.z  1 

C  7/17   QOO  (11 

0,  /4/,ozz.V4 

1  QO  ^ 

1  0V0 

i:    COO  AA "?   7  Q 

zo,oVz,UUo.  /  0 

0  1    1  1  1  O  7  7  A  7 
Z  1 , 1  1 4,V  /o.U  / 

A  All  A7A  71 
4,4/  /  ,UoU.  /  1 

A    COA    700  OA 

6,0oU,ooy  o4 

1896 

30,628,967.89 

25,577,550.40 

5,051,417.49 

6,965,656.31 

1897 

36,370,078.91 

30,685,874.80 

5,684,204.1 1 

6,991,086.50 

1898 

43,512,013.51 

36,052,407.85 

7,459,605.66 

7,691,942.55 

1899 

51,070,840.74 

43,417,361.06 

7,653,479.68 

Q   ^  7  ^   1  1A  1Q 
O,0/O,  104.0V 

1900 

62,158,034.33 

53,414,006.42 

8,744,027.91 

9,799,124.21 

1901 

74,771,758.56 

64,833,064.33 

9,938,694.23 

10,714,383.67 

1902 

89,168,790.55 

78,817,452.53 

10,351,338.02 

1 1,354,458.93 

1903 

105,656,311.60 

94,964,454.04 

10,691,857.56 

13,003,870.60 

1904 

128,094,315.24 

1 13,258,574.25 

14,835,740.99 

14,950  107.02 

1905 

151,663,477.29 

135,473,231.33 

16,190,245.96 

15,395,043.43 

1906 

176,429,015.04 

160,199,535.12 

16,229,479.92 

16,012,034.26 

*1907 

198,320,463.23 

184,368,564.09 

+  13.951,899.14 

18,233,369.58 

Total, 

$185,929,364.56 

'•''The  official  report  for  1007  will  not  be  available  for  sonic  months. 

+The  decrease  in  surplus  at  the  end  of  1907  was  caused  by  the  temporary  depreciation  in  the  market 
value  of  stocks  an  1  bonds  shown  by  the  quotations  on  the  last  day  of  the  year,  custom  having  established 
that  day's  quotations  as  the  basis  of  valuation  of  the  assets  of  insurance  companies. 


period  of  six  years  was  reached  we  find  the  assets  to  have  increased 
more  than  threefold— amounting  to  $6,287,781.35  at  the  end  of  1888, 


14 


and  the  annual  increase  since  then  has  been  phenomenally  rapid,  reaching 
the  magnificent  sum  of  5198,320,463.23  at  the  end  of  1907. 


The  Table  Below  is  an  Exhibit  of  the  Industrial  Policies  in  Force  at  the 
End  of  Each  Year,  Industrial  Death  Claims  and  Matured  Endow- 
ments and  Dividends  Paid  During  Each  Year. 


Year 

Policies  in  Force 

Claims  and 
Endowments  Paid 

Returns  to 
Policy-Holders 
in  Cash  Dividends 

Number 

Amount 

Number 

Amount 

r\o  tu  c  P"ni*tv 
UK  Inr.  r-UjCH- 

alent  Thereof 

1 6  /  y 

5,143 

sS16  618 

4 

$99.00 

1  OOU 

1 10,193 

9,103,870 

1 ,066 

33,934.53 

1  Oh  1 

190,348 

1 7,894,620 

2,646 

130,505.30 

1  °  °  1 

I  ooz 

335,789 

34,679,307 

4,308 

279,283.70 

too; 

526,042 

56  536  325 

7,045 

505,782.29 

1  OC  ] 

1  Oo4 

670,999 

71,965,635 

10,860 

834, 1 58.67 

l  oor 
Ioo3 

829,833 

91,434,252 

13,696 

1,151,413.13 

1  ooo 

1,066,875 

1 19,560,339 

16,916 

1,458,427.39 

1  oo  / 

1,345,125 

147,758,287 

22,566 

2,098,936.76 

1  ooo 

1,632,642 

176,533,142 

26,959 

2,431,091.28 

1  0  GO 

looy 

ES49J13 

200,*829!929 

32^451 

2.958,398.77 

i  con 

i  ©yu 

z.uyo.oyo 

ZO  1,11  0,440 

1Q  A  7Q 

oo,4/  o 

o,o4/  ,0  /  Z.ob 

i  oy  i 

2,278,487 

254,939,881 

45,062 

4,302,065.75 

1892 

2,715,414 

305,451,576 

50,063 

4,804,327.86 

1893 

2,932,064 

343,917,746 

53,999 

5,366.898.00 

1894 

3,559,165 

423,514,171 

57,653 

5,612,407.94 

$40,208.00 

1895 

3,458,846 

416,062,194 

64,597 

6,359,616.84 

84,355.00 

1896 

3,643,569 

454,068,004 

63,632 

6,605,585.06 

199^148.00 

1897 

4,028,722 

534,343,756 

63,525 

6,646.598.45 

1,081,668.00 

1898 

4,317,274 

591,427,272 

69,254 

7,210,627.27 

863,801.00 

1S99 

4,855,756 

688,629,175 

76,359 

7,809,348.72 

1,069,722.00 

1900 

5,327,067 

768,977,676 

85,870 

8,700,081.33 

928,389.00 

1901 

6,008,662 

881,491,451 

90,209 

9,207,656.03 

689,641.79 

1902 

6,698,291 

981,676,306 

95.609 

9,645,380.33 

670,746.50 

1903 

7,187,345 

1,059,875,827 

106,585 

10,887,221.43 

640,912.48 

1904 

7,614,729 

1,127,889,229 

1 16,419 

12,197,814.54 

790,077.43 

1905 

8,119,158 

1,207,924,312 

116,725 

12,330.902.08 

781,363.74 

1906 

8,487,670 

1,264,684,502 

121,238 

12,929,022.00 

1,846,587.44 

1907 

9,013,087 

1,317,883.486 

132,283 

14.473,926.87 

3,378,288.93 

Totals, 

1,586,077 

S160,619,083.70 

$13,064,909.31 

p 


Gouwrneur  Morris,  John  Rutherford,  Simeon  DeWi 


woods, 
Battery 


• 


g>ttr  of  t\}t  ijnme  ©tfirr  Smlflutn, 


By  Charles  Hemstreet,  Author  of  "  Xooks  and  Corners  of  Old  New  York,"  etc. 


ECULJAR  interest  has  been  attached  by  tradition  to  the  site  of  the 
Metropolitan  Building,  at  Madison  Avenue  and  Twenty-third  Street, 
New  York  City.  Here  it  was  that  a  revolution  was  wrought  in 
the  plan  of  laying  out  cities  and  that  the  scheme  of  avenues  and  cross 
streets  was  conceived. 

It  was  on  a  hot  summer  day  in  1810  that  the  Commissioners  of 
Streets  and  Roads,  after  three  years  of  fruitless  efforts  to  agree  upon  a 
plan,  were  spending  the  afternoon  upon  the  banks  of  the  little  stream 
that  came  across  what  is  now  Madison  Square  and  skirted  the  northern 
side  of  the  plot  upon  which  the  Metropolitan  Building  was  erected 
fourscore  years  later. 

Gouverneur  Morris,  John  Rutherford,  Simeon  DeWitt  and  S.  Guel, 
with  their  surveyor,  John  Randel,  Jr.,  were  sorely  perplexed.  They  had 
been  charged  in  1807  with  the  duty  of  laying  out  the  unoccupied 
portion  of  Manhattan  Island  so  as  to  provide  for  the  orderly  expansion 
of  the  city.  For  two  centuries  New  York  had  been  growing  in  a 
haphazard  sort  of  way,  the  little  Dutch  trading  post  about  Fort  Amsterdam 
and  the  villages  that  had  grown  up  in  the  lower  part  of  the  island  having 
been  welded  together  by  the  building  up  of  the  intervening  fields  and 
woods,  and  there  was  a  hopeless  tangle  of  a  town,  reaching  from  the 
Battery  to  Houston  Street  on  the  East  Side  and  to  Christopher  on  the 
West. 

It  was  felt  that  streets  should  be  mapped  out  in  some  regular 
fashion  before  the  city  spread  further,  and  this  commission  was  created. 
The  members  traveled,  consulted  engineers  in  this  country  and  abroad, 
and  were  unable  to  decide  upon  a  plan.  They  had  tried  to  devise  a 
"natural  city" — one  that  would  preserve  the  configuration  of  the  land 
and  the  courses  of  the  streams,  but  the  results  were  manifestly  impossible. 


17 


They  had  rejected  with  one  accord  the  system  of  square  "blocks"  which 
Philadelphia  had  adopted. 

On  this  summer  afternoon  the  commissioners  naturally  fell  to 
discussing  the  problem  that  had  become  a  bugbear  to  them,  and  walking 
over  to  where  there  was  some  freshly  screened  sand,  they  began  drawing 
plans  with  their  canes  to  illustrate  their  arguments.  • 

The  sun  peeped  out  from  behind  a  cloud  to  look  at  these  grave 
men  as  they  grew  warm  over  their  discussion,  and  the  rays  struck  a 
big  screen  that  the  workmen  had  been  using,  casting  at  the  feet  of 


House  of  Refuge,  Madison  Square,  1832 


the  commissioners  the  shadow  of  the  wires,  dividing  the  sand  into  neat 
oblong  spaces.  ■  - 

"There  is  the  plan!"  exclaimed  one,  and  out  of  this  suggestion 
that  the  screen  and  the  sun  had  conspired  to  put  into  the  minds  of  the 
commissioners,  grew  the  scheme  of  broad  avenues  running  the  length 
of  the  island,  with  cross  streets  placed  closer  together.  In  the  following 
year  they  presented  their  plan  to  the  city  authorities  and  it  was  adopted, 
though  it  was  utterly  unlike  anything  that  had  ever  been  thought  of 
in  the  laying  out  of  cities. 


18 


The  only  criticism  that  subsequent  generations  have  made  of  the 
plan  is  that  the  blocks  ought  to  have  been  turned  about,  so  as  to  provide 
more  avenues  and  fewer  cross  streets,  but  this  fault  is  probably  charge- 
able to  the  screen  being  so  placed  that  the  shadow  of  the  meshes  showed 
the  greater  length  of  the  rectangles  lying  east  and  west. 

These  men  laid  out  the  city  as  far  north  as  155th  Street,  thereby 
incurring  the  ridicule  of  their  townsmen,  who  declared  that  it  would 
take  a  score  of  centuries  for  the  city  to  fill  the  map  that  the  commis- 
sioners drew,  yet  New  York  now  has  streets  numbered  in  the  200 's, 
though  it  has  not  yet  rounded  out  a  century  since  this  plan  was  devised 
on  the  spot  where  the  Metropolitan  Building  now  rises. 

Near  the  end  of  the  18th  Century  the  Bloomingdale  Road  (now 
Broadway)  was  the  fashionable  drive  of  the  city,  and  at  Twenty-third 
Street  the  Boston  Post  Road  branched  off,  crossing  toward  the  Madison 
Square  Garden  site,  with  the  Potter's  Field  to  the  left  and  a  pond  to 
the  right.  This  sheet  of  water  was  directly  in  front  of  the  plot  on  which 
the  Metropolitan  Building  stands,  and  in  winter  it  was  a  favorite  skating 
place.  It  was  a  widening  in  the  stream  that  had  its  origin  in  springs  that 
rose  at  about  Twenty-second  Street  and  Sixth  Avenue.  At  Twenty-fourth 
Street  and  Madison  Avenue  it 
narrowed  again  into  the  dimen- 
sions of  a  little  rivulet  and  ran 
east,  cutting  across  the  northeast 
corner  of  the  Metropolitan  site 
and  emptying  into  the  East  River 
at  Seventeenth  Street. 

The  Potter's  Field  did  not 
long  remain  here.  In  1795,  moved 
by  the  objections  of  the  rich  folk, 
who  did  not  like  driving  past  such 
a  grewsome  spot,  the  city  moved 
the  burying-ground  of  paupers  to 
what  is  now  Washington  Square,  and  in  1806  the  city  ceded  the  plot  to 
the  Federal  Government  for  an  arsenal,  which  was  built  in  that  year  in 
the  northwest  corner  of  the  present  Madison  Square,  covering  the  sites  of 
the  Farragut,  Worth  and  Seward  monuments.  This  property  was  deeded 
back  to  the  city  in  1824  and  the  building  was  converted  into  a  House 


Franconi's  Hippodrome,  Madison  Square,  1853 


19 


of  Refuge,  which  was  opened  in  January,  1825.  The  building  was 
destroyed  by  fire  in  1839,  and  the  institution  then  moved  to  the  foot 
of  Bast  Twenty-third  Street. 

The  military  spirit  of  the  people  was  being  stirred  in  1810,  when 
the  plan  of  the  city  was  prepared,  by  the  troubles  with  Great  Britain  on 

the  high  seas,  and  the  commis- 
sioners included  in  their  scheme 
a  great  reservation  for  a  parade 
ground  and  public  park,  setting 
as  its  boundaries  Twenty-third 
and  Thirty-fourth  Streets  and 
Third  and  Seventh  Avenues. 
This  was  the  site  of  Camp  Madi- 
son, where,  in  August,  1812,  the 
troops  from  up-state  towns  were 
mobilized  for  the  war,  in  obedi- 
ence to  the  call  of  President 
Madison  for  315,000  soldiers  to 
fight  the  British. 

During  the  next  two  years  the  Eleventh  Regiment  held  its  weekly 
drills  on  these  grounds,  and  camped  for  three  months  of  the  fall  of  1814 
on  what  later  became  the  site  of  the  Metropolitan  Building.  In  September 
of  that  year  there  were  25,000  soldiers  encamped  here,  and  on  November 
13th,  Governor  D.  D.  Tompkins  reviewed  the  troops.  The  Eleventh 
Regiment  was  mustered  out  of  the  Federal  service  on  November  29th, 
but  continued  in  the  state  service,  and  the  four  companies  that  con- 
stituted the  Second  Battalion  afterward  formed  the  Twenty-seventh 
Regiment,  which  was  later  designated  the  Seventh,  so  it  may  be  said  that 
that  illustrious  command  practically  began  its  active  career  on  this  site. 

The  parade  ground  was  reduced  in  size  at  the  end  of  1814,  the  new 
boundaries  being  Twenty-third  and  Thirty-first  Streets  and  Fourth  and 
Sixth  Avenues.  In  1844  it  was  contracted  to  the  present  dimensions  of 
Madison  Square  and  its  improvement  as  a  public  park  was  begun  by 
Mayor  James  Harper. 

At  this  time  Corporal  Thompson's  cottage  occupied  the  site  of  the 
present  Fifth  Avenue  Hotel,  and  with  Buck's  Horn  Tavern,  at  Broadway 
and  Twenty-second  Street,  provided  refreshments  for  wayfarers  and  for 


20 


the  merry  parties 
considered  Madlsnt 


Twenty-third  Street  and  Madison 
Avenue,  which   afterward  made 


section  as  a  fashionable  residential 
place  came  the  building,  in  1853, 


the  merry  parties  that  rode  or  drove  out  from  the  city,  which  still 
considered  Madison  Square  "  country "  in  the  'forties. 

In  the  enclosure  adjoining  the  corporal's  cottage  on  the  north, 
cattle  shows  and  sales  were  held  until,  in  1853,  a  number  of  houses  having 
been  erected  in  this  section  by  fashionable  people,  the  road-house  made 
way  for  Franconi's  Hippodrome.  This  was  a  two-story  brick  building 
225  feet  in  diameter.  It  was  opened  May  8,  1853,  but  was  too  far  from 
the  bulk  of  the  population  to  have  a  long  or  profitable  existence.  In 
1855  Amos  Eno  tore  down  the  Hippodrome  and  began  the  erection  of  a 
hotel,  which  he  leased  to  Paran  Stevens,  who  opened  the  hostelry  in  1858. 

By  the  end  of  the  'forties  the  houses  of  the  wealthy  dotted  the  region 
from  Fourteenth  Street  to  Murray  Hill,  one  of  the  most  notable  being 
the  residence  of  S.  B.  M.  Barlow,  at 
Twenty-third  Street  and  Madison 
Avenue,  which  afterward  made 
way  for  the  first  Metropolitan 
Building.  Mr.  Barlow,  a  wealthy 
lawyer,  was  a  patron  of  literature 
and  art,  and  his  home  became  a 
centre  of  culture. 

With  the  development  of  this 
section  as  a  fashionable  residential 
place  came  the  building,  in  1853, 

Of  the  MadisOU  Square  Presbyte-  Corporal  Thompson's  Inn,  Madison  Square.  1840 

rian  Church,  on  the  Twenty-fourth 

Street  corner,  adjoining  the  Barlow  residence,  and  the  edifice  was  opened 
for  public  worship  in  December,  1854,  under  the  pastorate  of  the  Rev. 
Dr.  William  Adams.  This  church  has  acquired  fame  through  the  ministerial 
prominence  and  civic  activity  of  its  present  pastor,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Charles 
H.  Parkhurst.  The  building  was  demolished  in  1906  to  make  way  for  the 
extension  of  the  Metropolitan  Building  over  the  entire  block. 

Two  notable  buildings  closely  identified  with  American  progress 
occupied  the  eastern  end  of  the  block — the  National  Academy  of  Design, 
at  Twenty-third  Street  and  Fourth  Avenue,  and  the  Lyceum  Theatre,  on 
the  plot  adjoining  on  the  north. 

The  Academy,  which  in  its  long  career  has  done  valuable  service 
in  fostering  and  developing  American  art,  grew  out  of  the  New  York 


21 


Academy  of  Fine  Arts,  organized  in  1802,  and  became  firmly  established 
in  the  'twenties  largely  through  the  energy  of  Samuel  F.  B.  Morse.  After 
occupying  several  sites  further  down-town,  it  bought  this  property  in  1857 
and  laid  the  corner-stone  of  the  new  building  on  October  21,  1863,  but  it 
was  not  until  May,  1865,  that  the  new  home  of  art  was  opened.  It  was 
modeled  after  the  celebrated  Palace  of  the  Doges  in  Venice,  and  was  one 
of  the  show-places  of  the  city  until  it  was  torn  down  in  1901  to  make  way 
for  the  extension  of  the  Metropolitan  Building,  the  Academy,  in  May  of 
that  year,  having  taken  possession  of  its  partially  completed  galleries  at 
1 10th  Street  and  Amsterdam  Avenue. 

The  Lyceum  Theatre,  in  a  brief  career  of  fifteen  years,  witnessed 
more  successes  and  brought  out  more  stars  of  the  first  magnitude  than 
any  other  stage  in  America.  It  was  situated  in  the  middle  of  the 
Fourth  Avenue  block  now  occupied  by  the  company.  It  was  opened 
April  6,  1885,  with  a  notable  failure,  the  production  of  Steele  Mackaye's 
"Dakolar,"  a  version  of  George  Ohnet's  "Be  Maitre  des  Forges,"  but 
in  the  following  year  Helen  Dauvray  turned  the  fortunes  of  the  house 
with  Bronson  Howard's  comedy,  "One  of  Our  Girls,"  and  from  that  time 
on  the  stage  of  the  Lyceum  easily  ranked  among  the  most  prominent 
in  America.  Daniel  Frohman  then  took  the  house  and  organized  his 
famous  stock  company,  and  had  charge  until  the  theatre  was  pulled  down 
to  make  way  for  the  Fourth  Avenue  front  of  the  Metropolitan  Building. 

The  old  theatre  had  three  indisputable  titles  to  an  honored  place 
in  the  annals  of  the  stage.  It  was  the  birthplace  of  the  Belasco  plays, 
and  it  was  on  its  stage  that  the  Pinero  dramas  first  won  American 
theatregoers.  It  was  the  Byeeum  that  brought  out  such  brilliant  actors 
and  actresses  as  Georgia  Cay  van,  E.  H.  Sothern,  William  Faversham, 
Virginia  Harned,  Mary  Mannering  and  James  K.  Hackett.  Richard 
Mansfield,  Herbert  Kelcey,  W.  J.  BeMoyne,  Charles  Walcot,  Henry  Miller, 
Minnie  Maddern  Fiske,  and  a  host  of  others  hardly  less  well  known,  were 
also  members  of  the  Byceum  companies.  Some  of  the  famous  plays 
were  "The  Wife,"  "The  Charity  Ball,"  "Sweet  Lavender,"  "Lord  Chum- 
ley,"  "The  Prisoner  of  Zenda,"  "Trelawney  of  the  Wells,"  "Miss  Hobbs," 
"Squire  Kate,"  "The  Princess  and  the  Butterfly,"  "The  Adventures 
of  Lady  Ursula."  It  was  at  the  Lyceum  that  Annie  Russell  achieved 
her  greatest  success  in  "A  Royal  Family,"  in  which  play  Lawrence 
D'Orsay  first  came  prominently  forward. 


22 


flk.Mo\('f  the  main  monumental  «tructurvs  tmd 

^  politan  Life  Insurance  Company  stands  iw 
rank  by  reason  of  the  impressive  statelim-v.  m 
the  thoroughly  substantial  character  of  its  const 
pleteness  of  all  its  appointments. 

Square,  near  4lHivv^^(\IVfe,\^\l^um>^1^S^v>)!;1$^M' 


The  Metropolitan  Buildi 
style  of  northern  Italy -  a  sty! 
of  a  flexibility  readily  adapt! 
ments  of  the  day,  which  dema 
freemen  t  and  large-sized  openir 


telv 
tant 
and 


N.  LE  BRUN  &  Sons,  Architects 


iS^MOXG  the  many  monumental  structures  erected  in  New  York  City 
for  business  purposes,  the  Home  Office  building  of  the  Metro- 
~  politan  Life  Insurance  Company  stands  notably  in  the  foremost 
rank  by  reason  of  the  impressive  stateliness  of  its  design,  its  great  size, 
the  thoroughly  substantial  character  of  its  construction  and  the  com- 
pleteness of  all  its  appointments. 

This  pre-eminence  is  accentuated  by  an  admirable  location  at 
the  very  centre  of  the  Metropolis  on  the  eastern  flank  of  Madison 
Square,  near  the  meeting  point  of  three  of  its  busiest  thoroughfares, 
whence  it  can  be  seen  to  fine  advantage  above  the  leafy  foreground  of 
the  tree  tops. 

The  completion  of  its  crowning  feature,  the  tower,  will  mark  the 
culmination  of  a  series  of  building  operations  which,  commencing  with 
the  construction  during  the  years  1890  to  1893  of  the  southwesterly 
section  of  the  structure  fronting  on  Madison  Avenue,  have  continued 
intermittently  to  the  present  time. 

The  Metropolitan  Building  is  designed  in  the  early  renaissance 
style  of  northern  Italy — a  style  combining  dignity  with  refinement,  and 
of  a  flexibility  readily  adaptable  to  the  exacting  commercial  require- 
ments of  the  day,  which  demand  a  many-storied  structure  pierced  with 
frequent  and  large-sized  openings. 

The  initial  motif  was,  of  course,  the  section  built  at  the  corner  of 
Madison  Avenue  and  Twenty-third  Street.  Though  designed  with  no 
thought  of  future  extensions,  this  section,  from  its  massive  proportions, 
the  boldness  of  its  detail  and  general  architectural  features,  fortunately 
lent  itself  to  a  monumental  solution  of  the  problem,  and  the  resultant 
building  presents  both  in  plan  and  in  elevation  a  strictly  coherent  and 
consistent  whole  with  no  evidence  of  afterthought. 

23 


The  following  description  and  building  statistics  are  given  as  though 
the  construction  of  the  tower,  now  well  advanced,  were  completed. 

The  building  is  in  two  parts — the  main  building  occupying  the 
entire  block  bounded  by  Madison  and  Fourth  Avenues  and  Twenty-third 
and  Twenty-fourth  Streets,  and  the  Annex,  on  the  north  side  of  Twenty- 
fourth  Street,  connected  with  the  main  building  by  a  subterranean 
passage. 

The  main  building  contains  eleven  stories  and  is  164  feet  high;  the 
tower,  containing  fifty  stories  above  the  sidewalk  level,  reaches  an  altitude 
of  700  feet.  Each  avenue  front  being  200  feet  and  each  street  front  425 
feet  long,  the  building  has  a  girth  of  1,250  feet  and  a  total  superficies 
of  345,000  square  feet.  This  entire  exterior  is  faced  with  pure  white 
Tuckahoe  marble,  requiring  for  its  construction  about  half  a  million  cubic 
feet  of  that  select  material. 

The  first  story,  with  boldly  projecting  diamond-faced  ashlar,  serves 
as  a  plinth  to  the  second  and  third  stories,  which  are  united  as  one 
feature  and  are  decorated  with  a  rich  composite  order  of  coupled  columns 
and  pilasters.  At  the  main  entrance  on  Madison  Avenue  and  for  a 
length  of  150  feet  at  the  centre  of  the  Twenty-third  Street  front  the 
columns  project  five  feet,  forming  porticoes.  Around  the  base  of  the 
tower  and  on  Fourth  Avenue  they  are  slightly  engaged,  elsewhere 
omitted.  The  corner  pavilions  are  banded  with  rustications  to  give  a 
stronger  effect  to  the  angles  of  the  building.  The  richest  and  most 
delicate  carving  marks  externally  the  importance  of  the  second  and 
third  stories,  which,  taken  together,  form  what  the  Italians  call  the 
"  piano -nobile"  of  the  building  and  contain  those  suites  of  rooms  occupied 
by  the  executive  officers  of  the  company. 

From  the  fourth  to  the  ninth  stories  the  architectural  effects  are 
obtained  by  the  manner  of  grouping  and  decorating  the  windows,  which 
have  deeply  molded  and  decorated  reveals  and  carved  mullions  and 
are  tripled  in  the  curtains,  and  in  the  pavilions  have  plain  molded 
architraves  banded  with  rustications. 

The  crowning  division  of  the  facade,  containing  the  tenth  and 
eleventh  stories,  comprises  the  main  entablature  and  the  balustrade  or 
"attic."  This  vigorously  designed  entablature  has  a  bold  cornice,  of  six 
feet  projection,  which  casts  a  strongly  accentuated  shadow  proportioned 
to  the  height  of  the  building. 


24 


All  the  hon/onlal  lines  ami  arehiwur.il  feature 
are  continued  around  the  bloek  to  the  ju«<  w»u  of  the 
tower,  which,   projecting  live  feet   Ih\«m:  i 

given  to  its  sheer  height. 

structure    not  walled  in  or  intended    to   afford  protection 

elements).  In  its  general  design  and  outline  it  .  aflilia 
famous  Campanile  of  St.  Mark  at  Venice,  which  ha*  been 
a  Jrtototype,  and  brought  into  architectural  harmony  with 
building. 

Over  a  rich  base  reaching  to  the  sill  level  of  the  fifth  si 

Avwinns  of  the  ^Vr^^l^r^^^mttMf^J'oiirth  Avenue  fron 

fj*t  enntrr  of  the  main  building,  where  octagonal  balconi< 
th«  wt%Mt<  ihiilon  effect  of  that  cornice  without  interrupting 
•■MIOtHtv  ,fi  th*  .;.H•r^  and  at  the  twenty-fifth,  twenty-sixth  u 


tructure,  rises 
lxMiig  thereby 

•t  on  Madison 
I  icing  included 


All  the  horizontal  lines  and  architectural  features  above  described 
are  continued  around  the  block  to  the  junction  of  the  building  with  the 
tower,  which,  projecting  five  feet  beyond  the  main  structure,  rises 
directly  from  the  street  level,  fullest  emphasis  and  value  being  thereby 
given  to  its  sheer  height. 

The  dimensions  of  this  tower  are  seventy-five  feet  on  Madison 
Avenue  and  eighty-five  feet  on  Twenty-fourth  Street.  Its  total  height 
is  700  feet,  exceeding  considerably  that  of  any  other  structure  of  steel 
and  masonry  hitherto  attempted  (the  Eiffel  Tower  not  being  included 
in  this  comparison,  that  being  in  reality  only  an  open-work  "skeleton" 
structure — not  walled  in  or  intended  to  afford  protection  from  the 
elements).  In  its  general  design  and  outline  it  is  affiliated  to  the 
famous  Campanile  of  St.  Mark  at  Venice,  which  has  been  taken  as 
a  prototype,  and  brought  into  architectural  harmony  with  the  main 
building. 

Over  a  rich  base  reaching  to  the  sill  level  of  the  fifth  story,  sixty- 
eight  feet  above  the  sidewalk,  and  decorated  with  all  the  elaborate 
architectural  features  of  the  lower  portion  of  the  main  building,  rises  the 
severely  simple  shaft  extending  through  twenty-eight  stories  or  366  feet. 
The  angles  are  strongly  accentuated  by  broad  rustications,  and  on  each  face 
are  three  tiers  of  tripled  windows  similar  to  the  fenestration  of  the  central 
divisions  of  the  Twenty-third  Street  and  Fourth  Avenue  fronts.  Other- 
wise the  surfaces  are  unornamented  and  unbroken,  save  at  the  level  of 
the  cornice  of  the  main  building,  where  octagonal  balconies  continue 
the  strong  shadow  effect  of  that  cornice  without  interrupting  the  upward 
continuity  of  the  piers,  and  at  the  twenty-fifth,  twenty-sixth  and  twenty- 
seventh  stories,  where  great  clock  dials  twenty-six  and  a  half  feet  in 
diameter,  with  elaborately  carved  framing,  are  placed. 

The  crowning  feature  of  the  tower  is  separated  from  this  shaft 
by  a  continuous  line  of  boldly  projecting  double-bracketed  balconies 
at  the  twenty-ninth  and  thirtieth  stories,  377  feet  above  the  ground,  and 
is  given  richness  and  variety  of  light  and  shade  by  deep  arched  loggias 
of  the  Ionic  order,  having  five  openings  on  each  side  and  a  broad  frieze 
cornice  and  balustrade. 

The  loggia  section  extends  through  the  thirty-first  to  the  thirty- 
fifth  stories.  Over  its  balustrade,  454  feet  from  the  sidewalk,  the  walls 
of  the  tower  are  set  back  and  continue  thus  for  four  stories,  forming  a 


25 


massive  plinth  or  base  to  the  pyramidal  spire  which  supports  an  octagonal 
turret  whose  gilded  dome  contains  the  forty-eighth  and  forty-ninth  stories. 

The  exterior  marble  work  terminates  with  the  windows  of  the  forty- 
eighth  story,  from  which  level  up  the  tower  is  cased  with  gilded  copper. 

The  highest  lookout  is  reached  at  the  balcony  of  the  fiftieth  story, 
660  feet  above  the  sidewalk  level,  whence  probably  the  most  compre- 
hensive and  unique  panoramic  view  in  the  world  will  be  obtained. 
Within  range  will  be  visible  the  homes  of  over  one-sixteenth  of  the 
entire  population  of  the  United  States.  The  terminal  feature  consists 
of  a  great  electric  eight-sided  lantern  eight  feet  in  diameter,  from  which 
powerful  electric  flash-lights  will  mark  the  hours  of  the  night.  At  this 
culminating  point  it  attains  the  altitude  of  700  feet  above  the  sidewalk, 
or  734  feet  above  mean  tidewater  level. 

This  tower,  in  view  of  its  truly  colossal  dimensions  and  other 
striking  features,  has  been  the  subject  of  varying  comment  both  in  this 
country  and  abroad.  When  President  Hegeman,  with  prophetic  intuition, 
in  1893  first  broached  the  subject  of  such  a  possible  addition  to  the 
building,  it  was  a  rather  startling  proposition.  But  then  all  things  are 
relative.  In  the  good  old  time  when  five-story  buildings  and  foot 
ascension  was  the  accepted  scale  or  limit  of  effort,  such  a  tower  might 
have  been  even  considered  monstrous.  In  this  era  of  tall  achievements 
it  seems  only  a  logical  outcome  of  things. 

On  its  constructive  side,  the  complicated  problems  involved  in  the 
building  of  such  a  tower  have  been  mastered  through  the  perfecting  of 
that  ingenious  composite  and  perfectly  legitimate  form  of  building  by 
which  the  great  sustaining  power  of  steel  is  utilized,  firmly  knit  and 
anchored  to  a  protective  masonic  covering  of  concrete,  brick  and  stone; 
while  the  practical  utility  of  such  a  tall  structure  has  been  made  possible 
by  the  invention  of  the  rapidly  moving  modern  electric  traction  elevator, 
which  brings  the  fortieth  story  nearer  to  the  ground  level  than  was  the 
fifth  story  of  our  grandfathers. 

The  structural  and  the  practical  difficulties  being  thus  overcome, 
there  remains  the  artistic  side  of  the  question  to  be  considered. 

Whether  architects  are  working  toward  the  right  evolution  of  a 
tall  building,  irreverently  termed  "skyscraper"  style,  the  verdict  of  time 
only  can  determine.  The  testimony  of  the  past  shows  that  they  have, 
at  every  epoch-making  period,  been  sufficiently  ingenious  to  create  a 


26 


special  style,  giving 
and  aspirations.  Bi 
anew  the  elements 
arisen  out  of  a  mei 

■ 


Belfrv  at  Bruges,  1  to  Madison  Square  Tower,  1  t<  [.rotnivpe 
at  Seville,  1  to  6.  Comparing  the  relation  of  height  to  environment: 
the  Victoria  Tower,  London,  is  four  and  one-fourth  times  as  high  as 
the  Parliament  Hous\;  St.  Mark's  Tower  was  five  and  a  half  times  as 
high  as  the  adjoining  Libreria,  five  times  as  high  as  the  Doges'  Palace 

l'Mteta,  tknt  and  one  half  limes  the  height  of  the  main  building, 
oi  att«w^to^D\f.  s«ov\  |K&it3^  lSs<o\  \ys\  ^^{HfW^^ftgrh  main 

MldiM  and  -dn«u  twE*  ^rv  nr?Kiit  of  the  new  Madison  Square 
l  li^fcHlilMii  Ovfe-h  iht  •-^♦fimiie  side  of  Twenty-fourth  Street.  It 
is  iluiUen  r»"K*r»(  h*'  <  ••wMin»«ts  favorably  in  its  ratio  of  bulk 
to  hetelit  v. "i.  ffcl  w|  •  .     \*i<\     -   •tied,  and  should  fit  well  in  the 

dated  upon  the  fact  that  the 
11  always  be  safeguarded  and 
kept  in  evidence  ti*»r      I  ■        g^wnit  by  the  open  area  of  Madison 

The  main  eiiti  .•»<*•  1  !  I  'Hirth  Avenues  are  connected 

bv  a  grand  t tv -r mfhftfrf t  4  "  *•»••  rotundas  lined  with  variegated 
■ttrbtr*     Arrevuhi*    ir«..-  •>  ncli  ol   the  United  States  Post- 

Oftioe  the  MetmpolitaM  H«#k  the  Western  Union  Telegraph  Co.,  public 
%Jl\  v&w  tit  <hopr  of  JStmm  ttMfc  Transverse  corridors  connect  this 
ihona^riM*        t(|r  tuhprclauUe  eatimnees  on  Twenty-third  and  Twenty- 

.........  i  .        ,    .mi,  ihi  i-nif.nv    '    ''.«  ERibwav  static*. 


landscape.    TV  «•   »  OMfiatuJ 

aesthetic  value  of  MM 


Marble  Arcade,  four  hundred  feet  long,  extending  from 

Fourth  Avenue 


special  stvle,  giving  artistic  expression  to  its  dominant  characteristics 
and  aspirations.  But  they  have  always  done  so  by  utilizing  and  shaping 
anew  the  elements  of  past  styles.  No  worthy  art  nouveau  has  ever 
arisen  out  of  a  merely  eccentric  straining  after  novelty. 

In  this  tower  there  is  no  striking  departure  from  precedent  other 
than  size.  Its  ratio  of  height  to  width  is  as  1  to  8|,  nearly  the  same  as 
its  prototype  at  Venice,  and  about  the  proportion  of  a  sturdy  Doric 
column.  The  monument  at  Washington  (and  obelisks  generally)  have 
a  ratio  of  1  to  11;  the  Campanile  at  Florence  as  it  stands,  1  to  6h,  or 
had  the  pyramidal  termination  originally  designed  been  built,  1  to  7h; 
the  Tower  at  Cremona,  1  to  9\;  the  Campanile  at  Pistoia,  1  to  9;  the 
Belfry  at  Bruges,  1  to  9;  Madison  Square  Tower,  1  to  9;  its  prototype 
at  Seville,  1  to  6.  Comparing  the  relation  of  height  to  environment : 
the  Victoria  Tower,  London,  is  four  and  one-fourth  times  as  high  as 
the  Parliament  House;  St.  Mark's  Tower  was  five  and  a  half  times  as 
high  as  the  adjoining  Libreria,  five  times  as  high  as  the  Doges'  Palace 
and  the  buildings  surrounding  the  piazza,  and  twelve  times  as  high  as 
Sansovino's  Loggetta  that  nestled  at  its  base;  Madison  Square  Tower  is 
about  four  times  the  height  of  the  Garden;  the  lantern  of  the  Capitol  at 
Washington,  three  and  one-half  times  the  height  of  the  main  building.. 

The  Metropolitan  Life  Tower  is  four  times  the  height  of  the  main 
building,  and  eleven  times  the  height  of  the  new  Madison  Square 
Presbyterian  Church  on  the  opposite  side  of  Twenty-fourth  Street.  It 
is,  therefore,  evident  that  it  contrasts  favorably  in  its  ratio  of  bulk 
to  height  with  the  other  examples  cited,  and  should  fit  well  in  the 
landscape.  The  company  is  to  be  congratulated  upon  the  fact  that  the 
aesthetic  value  of  its  great  proportions  will  always  be  safeguarded  and 
kept  in  evidence  from  base  to  summit  by  the  open  area  of  Madison 
Square. 

The  main  entrances  at  Madison  and  Fourth  Avenues  are  connected 
by  a  grand  thoroughfare  of  arcades  and  rotundas  lined  with  variegated 
marbles.  Accessible  from  it  are  a  branch  of  the  LTnited  States  Post- 
Office,  the  Metropolitan  Bank,  the  Western  Union  Telegraph  Co.,  public 
telephone  and  shops  of  divers  kinds.  Transverse  corridors  connect  this 
thoroughfare  with  the  subordinate  entrances  on  Twenty-third  and  Twenty- 
fourth  Streets  and  with  the  various  stairways  and  batteries  of  elevators  at 
convenient  points,  as  well  as  with  the  entrance  to  the  subway  station. 


27 


Through  these  elevators,  thirty-eight  in  number,  and  the  several  miles 
of  halls  distributed  throughout  the  upper  stories,  rapid  access  is  assured 
to  all  of  the  1,100  offices  occupied  by  tenants,  and  to  the  numerous  great 
suites  of  rooms  devoted  to  the  use  of  the  various  departments  of  the 
company's  vast  business  (elsewhere  described  in  detail),  the  company's 
suites  occupying  about  fifty  per  cent,  of  the  available  floor  space. 

With  the  constant  throng  of  occupants  and  visitors,  numbering 
more  than  twenty  thousand  each  day,  it  will  be  readily  understood  that 
the  courts  and  arcade,  though  planned  on  an  unusually  liberal  scale, 
present  a  most  animated  scene  and  are  almost  taxed  to  their  full  capacity 
at  the  busiest  hours  of  the  day. 

Passing  through  the  Madison  Avenue  entrance  and  corridor,  one 
enters  the  main  rotunda,  forty  feet  square  and  seventy  feet  high,  which 
contains  a  magnificent  marble  and  onyx  stairway  leading  to  the  loggia 
on  the  second  story,  which  surrounds  this  court  and  gives  access  to 
the  various  suites  for  the  executive  officers.  These  suites  extend  con- 
tinuously on  the  second  story  around  the  greater  part  of  the  block  and 
for  a  portion  of  the  third  and  fourth  stories,  and  are  finished  in  Santo 
Domingo  mahogany  richly  ornamented  and  carved.  On  this  second 
story  are  located  the  great  Security  Vault,  the  Board  Room,  the  Library, 
the  Cashiers'  and  the  Real  Estate  departments.  The  other  administrative 
departments  for  the  company's  business  are  grouped  along  the  Twenty- 
fourth  Street  half  of  the  building  and  in  the  central  inner  portion  of  the 
Twenty-third  Street  section — all  as  elsewhere  described. 

The  woodwork  of  these  offices  and  for  the  rented  portion  of  the 
building  is  of  quartered  oak,  the  flooring  of  hard  pine,  excepting  in  the 
tower  and  adjacent  section,  where  there  is  no  visible  woodwork — all 
the  doors,  etc.,  being  encased  in  heavy  sheet  bronze,  and  all  floors  being 
laid  solidly  over  the  concrete  arches  and  finished  in  polished  cement 
or  terrazzo. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  state  that  in  a  building  of  this  character  the 
most  approved  systems  of  steam-heating,  plumbing,  electric  lighting, 
telephone  connections,  etc.,  have  been  introduced. 

The  passenger  elevators,  serving  the  main  portion  of  the  building 
to  the  eleventh  story,  are  of  the  rapid-running,  high-pressure,  hydraulic 
type.  When  the  question  of  the  tower  elevators  came  up,  realizing  the 
importance  and  unusual  character  of  the  service  required,  the  company 


28 


appointed  a  comm 
H.  W.  Spangler  an 
of  the  various  ly 
reported  in  favor  c 
to  be  thoroughly  « 


ux,  Prof, 
u-  merits 


MMH  Mjhtftantia)  character.    The  foundations  are  all  founded  on  solid 

Owing  tit  the  number  of  years  during  which  the  building  operations 
continued,  the  methods  of  construction  of  the  successive  extensions  were 
changed  to  keep  pace  with  the  rapid  advance  in  the  art  of  building.  Thus 
the  exterior  walls  of  the  first  section  are  of  the  old  style  solid  masonry 
type  of  construction,  and  it  was,  we  believe,  the  last  of  the  modern 
buildings  of  its  height  to  be  built  of  that  type  in  this  city.  While  in  the 
construction  of  the  tower,  in  the  methods  of  fireproofing  and  protecting 
the  steel  work  from  rust  and  in  many  other  constructive  matters,  the 
work  i$  a  distinct  advance  upon  any  preceding  effort. 


In  1903  the  tt«i»*Vtu$<voJ H^i^ment  had  assumed  suclv  proportions 

th(  work  in  the  i 


It  groups  well,  as  shown 
building,  but  with  the  .« 
Nearly  one-half  of 


>ure  white  Tuckahoe 


appointed  a  commission  of  experts,  consisting  of  C.  0.  Mailloux,  Prof. 
H.  W.  Spangler  and  C.  I.  Duenkel,  to  investigate  thoroughly  the  merits 
of  the  various  types  presented.  After  a  very  thorough  study  they 
reported  in  favor  of  the  overhead  electric  traction  type,  which  appeared 
to  be  thoroughly  suited  to  the  extraordinary  rise  of  lift  and  the  rapidity 
of  service  required. 

The  construction  and  finish  of  the  building  throughout  are  of  the 
most  substantial  character.  The  foundations  are  all  founded  on  solid 
rock,  which  was  encountered  at  varying  depths  from  twelve  to  thirty- 
four  feet  below  the  sidewalk  level. 

Owing  to  the  number  of  years  during  which  the  building  operations 
continued,  the  methods  of  construction  of  the  successive  extensions  were 
changed  to  keep  pace  with  the  rapid  advance  in  the  art  of  building.  Thus 
the  exterior  walls  of  the  first  section  are  of  the  old  style  solid  masonry 
type  of  construction,  and  it  was,  we  believe,  the  last  of  the  modern 
buildings  of  its  height  to  be  built  of  that  type  in  this  city.  While  in  the 
construction  of  the  tower,  in  the  methods  of  fireproofing  and  protecting 
the  steel  work  from  rust  and  in  many  other  constructive  matters,  the 
work  is  a  distinct  advance  upon  any  preceding  effort. 

©hp  iHrtrojmlttait  Ann?x 

In  1903  the  Printing  Department  had  assumed  such  proportions 
that  it  was  impossible  to  longer  carry  on  the  work  in  the  main  building, 
and  the  company,  in  consequence,  acquired  a  plot  on  the  north  side  of 
Twenty-fourth  Street,  75  by  100  feet,  on  which  it  erected  the  Metropolitan 
Annex. 

This  building,  sixteen  stories  high,  is  faced  with  pure  white  Tuckahoe 
marble  on  three  sides,  severely  simple  in  style  but  designed  in  a  manner 
to  harmonize  with  the  architectural  treatment  of  the  main  building. 
It  groups  well,  as  shown  in  the  perspective  plate,  not  only  with  that 
building,  but  with  the  adjoining  Madison  Square  Presbyterian  Church. 

Nearly  one-half  of  the  building  is  occupied  by  the  company  for 
the  Printing  Department.  On  the  second  floor  is  located  one  of  the 
nine  District  Offices  which  the  Metropolitan  maintains  in  Manhattan 
to  facilitate  the  rapid  handling  of  the  work  of  the  agents. 

The  Annex  is  connected  with  the  basement  and  sub-basement  of 
the  main  building  by  a  two-story  tunnel  under  Twenty-fourth  Street. 


29 


Bamt  ilntmstmg  ^tattfittra  of  %  mptrnpolttan  Hmtfting 


Size  of  building: 

Main  portion  of  building  200x425x164  feet  high 

Tower  75x85x700  feet  high 

Size  of  Annex  75x80x216  feet  high 

Superficies  of  exterior  ....  345,000  square  feet 

Including  Annex  405,000  square  feet 

Cubical  contents,  including  vaults  (excluding  courts)  .  .  .  .     16,287,934  cubic  feet 

Including  Annex   17,850,239  cubic  feet 

Floor  area  of  building  (about  twenty-five  acres) ...  1,085,663  square  feet 

Including  Annex   1,189,388  square  feet 

Total  weight  of  building  .  .  170,000,000  pounds— 85,000  tons 

Total  weight  of  tower   .  87,226,000  pounds— 43,613  tons 

Weight  of  structural  steel: 

Tower  7,500  tons 

Balance    8,000  tons 

Total   15,500  tons 

Normal  weight  on  corner  steel  columns  7,500,000  pounds 

Additional  load  due  to  high  wind  pressure  2,900,000  pounds 

Or  a  total  load  of   10,400,000  pounds 

Cross  sectional  area  of  steel  corner  columns,  sub-basement  540  square  inches 

Weight  of  basement  corner  columns  22  tons 

Number  of  bricks  in  building,  about  35,000,000 

Number  of  barrels  of  cement  in  tower  alone,  over  40,000 

Number  of  cubic  yards  of  concrete  in  tower  alone,  about  9,000 

Number  of  cubic  feet  of  white  marble  in  exterior  facing  556,000 

(More  than  in  any  other  structure  in  the  world.) 

Number  of  passenger  elevators  (thirty  hydraulic,  eight  electric)  38 

Number  of  freight  elevators  (hydraulic) .   10 

Number  of  stories  in  tower  50 

Number  of  steps  from  first  story  to  top  of  tower  1,053 

Combined  length  of  corridors     ■  •  3§  miles 

Combined  height  of  elevator  shafts  .    1$  miles 

Storage  capacity  of  water  tanks  90,900  gallons 

Storage  capacity  of  coal  vaults  4,000  tons 

Horse-power  boilers  3,350 

Number  of  miles  of  plumbing  pipe  (about)  .  .   13 

Total  length  of  cables  of  elevators : 

Hoisting  and  counterweight  cables  121,000  feet 

Operating  cables  19,000  feet 

Distance  traveled  by  elevators  in  one  year  124,090  miles 

Electric  lights  30,000 

Electric  light  fixtures    15,000 

Motors  (total  horse-power,  707)   116 

Iron  conduits  800,000  feet— 15 H  miles 

Electric  light  and  power  wire  1,000,000  feet— 189  miles 


30 


II  illustrated  by  its  experience  in  recent  yea 
ictory  home.  Before  giving  a  description  ol 
\  reference  to  the  earlier  Home 


Chartered  in  1868,  the  first  location  of  the  Metre 
politan  was  at  No.  243  Broadway,  New  York  City.  Its 
offices,  two  in  number,  were  on  the  second  floor,  and 
consisted  of  a  small  rear  room  for  the  president  and  a 
front  room  containing  the  remainder  of  the  staff — vice- 
pivHsdt-Tit  secretary,  cashier,  policy  clerk  and  boy.  The 
Ortfcv  mii  occupied  was  not  over  nine  hundred  square 


accommodation  of  the  German  Department. 

Six  years  later,  in  1876,  having  outgrown  the  rentable 
space  in  the  Broadwav  building  and  the  company  being 
tired  of  tenancy,  it  purchased  the  leasehold  of  the  property 
at  the  corner  of  Park  Place  and  Church  Street.    Here  it 

I 


the  Annex  and  both  the  old  and  new  Madison  Square 
Presbyterian  Churches 


^JTHE  magnitude  of  the  Metropolitan  and  the  astonishing  rapidity  of 
I   I  I    its  growth  are  well  illustrated  by  its  experience  in  recent  years  in 
securing  a  satisfactory  home.    Before  giving  a  description  of  the 
present  building,  a  brief  reference  to  the  earlier  Home 
Offices  will  be  of  interest. 

Chartered  in  1868,  the  first  location  cf  the  Metro- 
politan was  at  No.  243  Broadway,  New  York  City.  Its 
offices,  two  in  number,  were  on  the  second  floor,  and 
consisted  of  a  small  rear  room  for  the  president  and  a 
front  room  containing  the  remainder  of  the  staff — vice- 
president,  secretary,  cashier,  policy  clerk  and  boy.  The 
entire  space  occupied  was  not  over  nine  hundred  square 
feet. 

Two  years  later  the  business  had  grown  sufficiently 
to  warrant  removal  to  larger  quarters  at  Xo.  319  Broad- 
way, where  in  addition  to  accommodations  for  the  officers 
and  clerical  force  (the  latter  then  numbering  less  than 
a  dozen)  on  the  third  floor,  including  a  supply  room 
10x15,  there  was  an  office  in  the  basement  for  the 
accommodation  of  the  German  Department. 

Six  years  later,  in  1876,  having  outgrown  the  rentable 
space  in  the  Broadwav  building  and  the  company  being 
tired  of  tenancy,  it  purchased  the  leasehold  of  the  property 
at  the  corner  of  Park  Place  and  Church  Street.  Here  it 
was  believed  the  company  had  found  a  permanent  home, 
but  in  the  late  'eighties,  when  its  business  had  expanded 
to  five  entire  floors  and  was  rapidly  increasing,  the 
executive  realized  that  in  the  near  future  it  would  be  compelled  to  look 
elsewhere  for  accommodations,  and  so  it  was  decided  to  move  "up-town." 
A  plot  125x145,  on  the  corner  of  Twenty-third  Street  and  Madison 
Avenue,  was  purchased  and  a  handsome  building  erected,  the  company 


First  Office  of  the  Company 
243  Broadway 


31 


reserving  the  entire  second,  third,  fourth  and  fifth  floors  for  its  own 
use.  This  space  was  believed  to  be  ample  for  the  use  of  the  company 
for  many  years.  How  little  the  builders  realized  the  possibilities  of  the 
business  was  apparent  almost  as  soon  as  the  rooms  were  ready  for 
occupancy,  the  company  being  obliged  to  take  additional  space  on  the 
sixth  and  ninth  floors,  and  a  little  later  to  fill  the  stores  on  the  street 
floor  with  clerks. 

The  problem  then  presented  was,  whether  to  part  with  the  tenants, 
to  whom  rooms  had  been  rented  on  the  other  floors  of  the  building,  or  to 
provide  additional  accommodations  elsewhere.  It  was  decided  to  erect 
a  new  building,  to  be  devoted  entirely  to  the  business  of  the  company, 

and  to  remove  thereto  the  entire  Home  Office 
staff,  except  the  Executive  Division  and  that  of 
the  Cashier,  together  occupying  the  second  floor 
of  the  building  on  Twenty-third  Street,  the  con- 
struction of  the  rooms  occupied  by  those  divisions 
being  such  that  the  space  could  not  economically 
be  prepared  for  renting. 

The  new  building  was  erected  on  Twenty- 
fourth  Street,  diagonally  to  the  rear  of  the  original 
building,  was  twelve  stories  in  height  and  covered 
a  plot  of  ground  containing  11,500  square  feet. 
Here  at  least  was  sufficient  space  to  provide  for 
the  needs  of  the  company  for  an  indefinite  period; 
but  alas  for  the  foresight  of  the  most  sanguine! 
Hardly  were  the  divisions  settled  in  their  new 
quarters  when  it  was  seen  that  it  would  be  a 
question  of  a  few  years  only  when  more  room 
must  be  had,  and  the  lots  on  Twenty-third  Street 
running  back  to  Fourth  Avenue  were  purchased. 
Later  the  remainder  of  the  block  bounded  by 
Madison  and  Fourth  Avenues  and  Twenty-third 
and  Twenty-fourth  Streets  was  purchased,  giving 
the  company  95,000  square  feet,  on  which  the  present  Home  Office 
building  stands.  About  one-half  of  the  twenty-five  acres  of  floor  space 
in  the  building  is  used  by  the  company;  and  even  should  the  present 
rate  of  increase  in  the  business  continue,  there  is  slight  probability,  in 

32 


Second  Office  of  the  Company 
319  Broadway 


the  lifetime  of 
more  space  th: 
The  Hon 


needing 


to  be  the  WO* 
have  knowlcdj 
devoted  to  thi 
the  transact  ion 
without  rompu 


unable  to  see  the  realities  some  little  idea  of  the  internal  arrangements 
for  handling  the  enormous  detail  pertaining  to  a  business  of  such 
magnitude  as  that  of  the  Metropolitan. 

Before  visiting  the  different  divisions,  a  few  words  regarding  the 
office  staff  generally  will  be  of  interest.  At  this  time  the  indoor  staff 
numl»ers  ?.4f>8  clerks  and  427  employes  in  the  Printing  Division  and 


ding  on  paper  is  not  to  be  compared 
ures,  it  will  perhaps  convey  to  those 


automatically  by  electric 
>ms.  Clerks  are  fined  for 
with  bonuses  for  prompt 


ery  clerk 
.  vacation 
1  o'clock. 


when  re 
and  me 


hed  to  U 


ments  mark 


ill  as  to  I 


the  lifetime  of  any  of  the  present  management,  of  the  company  needing 
more  space  than  is  available  in  the  building  as  it  stands  to-day. 

The  Home  Office  building  is  the  largest  and  is  generally  conceded 
to  be  the  most  beautiful  office  building  in  the  world,  and,  so  far  as  we 
have  knowledge,  the  company's  plant  is  the  most  extensive  extant 
devoted  to  the  business  of  a  financial  institution,  and  its  facilities  for 
the  transaction  of  business  and  the  comfort  of  the  employes  assuredly 
without  compare. 

Visitors  are  ever  welcome  to  the  Home  Office,  and  ushers  to  show 
them  through  the  building  are  always  available. 

While  a  trip  through  the  building  on  paper  is  not  to  be  compared 
with  a  sight  of  its  interesting  features,  it  will  perhaps  convey  to  those 
unable  to  see  the  realities  some  little  idea  of  the  internal  arrangements 
for  handling  the  enormous  detail  pertaining  to  a  business  of  such 
magnitude  as  that  of  the  Metropolitan. 

Before  visiting  the  different  divisions,  a  few  words  regarding  the 
office  staff  generally  will  be  of  interest.  At  this  time  the  indoor  staff 
numbers  2,468  clerks  and  427  employes  in  the  Printing  Division  and 
other  mechanical  departments.  The  clerical  force  is  made  up  of  1,533 
women  and  935  men.  The  regular  hours  of  service  are  from  9  a.  m.  to 
4.30  p.  m.,  with  thirty  minutes  for  lunch.  Clerks  are  expected  to  be 
at  their  desks  at  the  opening  hour  and  not  leave  the  office  until  the 
closing  hour,  both  periods  being  announced  automatically  by  electric 
gongs,  which  can  be  heard  throughout  the  rooms.  Clerks  are  fined  for 
tardiness  and  for  absence,  but  are  rewarded  with  bonuses  for  prompt 
and  regular  attendance.  The  bonuses  last  year  were  three  times  the 
fines.  Every  clerk  with  service  commencing  prior  to  the  current  year 
receives  a  vacation  of  two  weeks  with  pay.  On  Saturday  the  office 
closes  at  1  o'clock.  Night  work  is  avoided  so  far  as  possible,  but 
when  required,  the  clerks  receive  pay  for  overtime.  Free  medical  service 
and  medicine  are  furnished  to  any  employe  taken  ill  during  business 
hours,  and  special  arrangements  made  with  physicians  and  hospitals  for 
the  care  of  those  so  seriously  ill  as  to  be  obliged  to  give  up  work.  The 
executive  does  everything  it  can  consistently  for  the  health,  comfort 
and  convenience  of  the  employes. 

In  1900  the  company  started  a  fund  for  the  benefit  of  its  employes, 
both  in  the  Home  Office  and  the  field,  in  the  nature  of  a  savings  bank, 


33 


called  The  Metropolitan  Staff  Savings  Fund.  Its  object  is  the  creation 
of  a  fund  by  each  contributor  which  will  be  available  for  his  support 
when,  owing  to  age  or  ill  health,  he  will  be  incapacitated  from  further 
labor,  or  for  his  family  at  his  decease. 

Every  employe  who  has  been  in  the  service  of  the  company  for 
over  one  year,  and  whose  earnings  are  less  than  $3,000  per  annum,  is 
permitted  to  deposit  a  limited  proportion  of  his  earnings,  to  which  the 
company  adds  fifty  per  cent.  The  company  agrees  to  invest  the  money 
and  keep  the  accounts  without  expense  to  the  members.  Interest  is 
credited  to  each  account  annually.  Members  may  withdraw  their  own 
deposit  and  interest  at  any  time,  but  the  company's  contribution  is  not 
returned  unless  the  withdrawal  is  in  consequence  of  being  "  incapacitated 
by  age  or  ill  health."  The  amounts  contributed  by  the  company,  which 
are  forfeited  in  case  withdrawal  is  for  other  reason  than  age,  ill  health 
or  death,  are  credited  to  the  accounts  of  the  persistent  members  less  a 
percentage  adjusted  by  a  sliding  scale,  which  is  returned  to  the  company. 

The  present  membership  of  the  fund  is  nearly  5,000,  and  the 
amount  standing  to  its  credit  over  $600,000.  The  actual  rate  of 
interest,  excluding  forfeitures,  credited  to  each  account  during  the  past 
year  was  5.36  per  cent.  Including  forfeitures,  the  average  rate  credited 
to  each  depositor  was  over  eight  per  cent.  The  amount  paid  during  the 
year  on  account  of  death  or  withdrawal  due  to  sickness  was  $21,048.24. 

A  bulletin  is  printed  daily  for  circulation  throughout  the  Home 
Office,  in  which  appear  notices  of  interest  to  the  office  staff  and 
announcements  of  changes  in  the  field  force. 

Entering  the  building  from  any  side,  we  find  ourselves  in  the  marble 
arcade  running  the  entire  length  of  the  building,  and  which  has  been 
already  described. 

Here  is  placed  the  Bureau  of  Information,  to  which  all  persons 
desiring  to  see  the  Home  Office  building,  to  communicate  with  employes 
or  ask  any  question  regarding  the  company  are  referred.  In  addition 
to  the  uniformed  head  of  the  bureau,  there  are  messengers  whose 
sole  duty  it  is  to  pilot  visitors  through  the  maze  of  corridors  to  the 
division  of  which  they  are  in  search.  Here  are  railroad  time  tables  and 
directories  of  various  cities  for  the  accommodation  of  visitors,  a  card 
index  of  all  Home  Office  employes,  indicating  the  division  in  which 
each  is  employed,  for  their  ready  location  by  visitors,  and  a  telephone 


34 


 Z_  :  


>mr>;k  wcvabolA  ho  sVmZ  ^Jt\w^x3.  gm-irosU  ,Uwbiiai<\       \o  ^s^O 


toimccting  with  c 
Home  Office  empl 

the  ground  *i<« 
basement.  It 


ahf  lixmtttur  ©fltrrs 

The  executive  offices  are  for  the  most  part  on  the  second  floor. 
The  corner  room  at  Madison  Avenue  and  Twenty-third  Street  is  the 
President's  office,  and  is  also  used  by  the  Board  of  Directors  and  the 
Finance  Committee.  It  is  a  splendid  room,  26x36,  trimmed  in  richly 
carved  San  Ikmungo  mahogany,  with  a  monumental  mantel  designed 
alter  nnt  in  the  Chateau  de  Villerov.  Its  walls  are  covered  with  leather, 
uu.l  the  crthrtu   which  i>  of  orH2Hfl^;fl*WlasterVis  faced  with  u<>ld  leaf 


connecting  with  every'  office.  For  the  accommodation  of  tenants  and 
Home  Office  employes,  postage  stamps  are  here  for  sale. 

In  describing  the  Home  Office,  one  method  would  be  to  start  on 
the  ground  floor  and  follow  the  building  through  to  the  top  from  the 
basement.  It  would  happen,  if  we  should  pursue  this  course,  that 
divisions  and  sections  of  the  Home  Office  work  would  be  described 
out  of  their  relations  to  one  another  and  not  at  all  in  the  order  of  their 
importance.  We  think  the  reader  will  get  a  better  idea  of  the  wonders 
of  the  head  office  work  of  the  company  if  we  take  up  the  parts  in 
natural  order,  somewhat  as  the  work  is  actually  done,  indicating  as  we  go 
along  the  places  in  the  building  where  the  officers  and  clerks  are  located. 

£hp  txmttttir  OMres 

The  executive  offices  are  for  the  most  part  on  the  second  floor. 
The  corner  room  at  Madison  Avenue  and  Twenty-third  Street  is  the 
President's  office,  and  is  also  used  by  the  Board  of  Directors  and  the 
Finance  Committee.  It  is  a  splendid  room,  26x36,  trimmed  in  richly 
carved  San  Domingo  mahogany,  with  a  monumental  mantel  designed 
after  one  in  the  Chateau  de  Villeroy.  Its  walls  are  covered  with  leather, 
and  the  ceiling,  which  is  of  ornamental  plaster,  is  faced  with  gold-leaf — 
in  the  end  most  economical  in  cost,  for  age  improves  it  and  it  will 
never  need  any  attention  or  repair.  The  furniture  is  heavy  and  beau- 
tifully carved.  The  Madison  Avenue  suite  is  occupied  by  the  reception 
room,  officers'  library,  consultation  room  and  Vice-President's  office;  the 
Twenty-third  Street  suites,  by  the  Second  and  Third  Vice-Presidents, 
Assistant  Secretaries  and  Cashier,  and  the  Twenty-fourth  Street  suites 
by  the  Treasurer  and  Comptroller.  These  rooms  are  all  trimmed  with 
rich  mahogany,  and  the  decorations  are  simple.  The  office  of  the  Fourth 
Vice-President  is  in  the  tower,  on  the  fourth  floor,  connecting  with  the 
Ordinary  Department,  of  which  he  has  the  care;  that  of  the  Secretary  is 
on  the  fifth  floor,  near  the  large  clerical  Industrial  Department  office 
force,  of  which  he  has  special  charge. 

In  the  Secretary's  office  we  have  an  opportunity  to  see  the  working 
of  the  electric  call  system,  one  of  the  greatest  "time"  savers  in  the 
building.  The  necessities  of  the  business  require  continual  personal 
interviews,  and  the  object  of  this  system  is  the  prompt  summoning  of  a 
subordinate  and  the  prevention  of  the  loss  of  time  consequent  on  attempted 


35 


interviews  when  a  superior  is  engaged  or  not  in  his  office.  Pressure  of 
a  numbered  button  at  the  desk  of  the  party  desiring  the  interview  throws 
down  an  arrow  correspondingly  numbered  in  the  room  of  the  party  to 
be  seen  and  says  as  plainly  as  words,  "May  I  interview  you?"  The 
answer  is  given  when  the  opportunity  presents  itself,  by  a  similar  indi- 
cation and  the  arrow  thrown  back,  and  not  a  moment  has  been  lost  by 
an  unnecessary  trip  sometimes  from  an  office  several  minutes  away. 

Aitfttt  Stmsum 

On  the  ninth  floor  we  get  the  first  glimpse  of  the  Audit  Division, 
the  largest  division  of  the  Industrial  Department,  occupying,  in  con- 
junction with  the  Agency  Division  and  the  Stenographic  Bureau, 
nearly  the  whole  of  four  floors.  The  scope  of  the  work  of  this  division 
is  not  very  clearly  indicated  in  its  name,  for  while  the  agents'  reports 
are  audited  here,  that  is  but  a  trifling  part  of  its  responsibility. 
All  policies  are  here  written,  and  all  the  books  kept  in  which  their 
subsequent  history  is  recorded.  The  ordinary  business  man  who  has 
work  enough  to  keep  a  stenographer  and  a  couple  of  bookkeepers  con- 
stantly employed  is  undoubtedly  well  satisfied  with  the  amount  of  his 
business.  This  one  division  of  the  Metropolitan  employs  287  men 
as  bookkeepers  and  752  women  clerks.  There  are  in  the  Audit  Division 
over  500  women  using  typewriters  and  in  the  building  nearly  800  type- 
writing machines  of  various  makes — the  largest  number  in  use  under 
any  single  roof  in  the  world.  A  few  figures  referring  to  the  work  of  this 
division  will  be  of  interest. 

Six  hundred  and  six  ledgers  are  in  constant  use,  in  which  are 
entered  in  one  year  65,000,000  figures,  and  30,000  agents'  registers  in 
which  are  also  entered  in  one  year  200,000,000  figures.  More  than  12,000 
transfer  schedules  are  received  each  week. 

In  one  year  there  are  used  7,000,000  register  sheets,  written  on  the 
typewriter  (in  duplicate),  agents  each  receiving  a  duplicate  of  the  list 
retained  at  the  Home  Office 

There  have  been  written  and  issued  in  a  single  week  over  77,000 
policies. 

The  work  of  this  division  is  of  such  magnitude  that  experience  has 
shown  the  only  way  in  which  it  can  be  properly  handled  is  to  divide  it 
geographically — each  section  doing  the  same  line  of  work,  and  accordingly 

36 


toi  >s«fct©<\sQ  \ohkMb«\  .wo'n'mQ  VibwK      \o  ^«oii^Z  \\\§'i3.  asU  \o 


have  been  made 
received,  f>t  that  *hp  wlmh 


iSistnrti  itf  an  Appltratuitt 


ihem  into  tht-  medically  examined  and  the  medically  inspected 
medical  inspections  are  sent  to  the  clerks  in  the  Policy  Division 
ol  the  Audit  Division),  and  the  medical  examinations  are  hai. 
other  clerks.  The  doctors'  reports  of  inspections  and  examinatj' 
examined,  and  if  there  are  any  facts  contained  in  a  report  t1! 
clerk  has  no  authority  to  pass  she  refers  the  application  to  the  I 
Examiners  at  this  office,  who  either  pass,  hold  for  correspondc 


clerks  are  either  m  rit-t  d 
applications  are  handed  i<  {'».< 
head  of  the  Policy  Divinuu  U* 
correspondence.  The  appii- ..  t 
for  second  insurance  are  puv*<' 
to  other  clerks,  who  obtain  fron 
the  Filing  Section  the  appBoi 
applications  are  then  compared 


eight  sections,  designated  by  the  first  eight  letters  of  the  alphabet, 
have  been  made. 

The  following  will  give  some  idea  of  the  treatment  applications 
receive  from  the  time  they  leave  the  agents'  hands  until  policies  are 
received,  or  that  slip  which  has  blasted  so  many  hopes — a  rejection  notice. 

history  nf  an  Appltratton 

The  applications  are  received  at  this  office  direct  from  the  Medical 
Examiners  and  delivered  at  once  to  the  Medical  Division. 

There  they  are  stamped,  checked  with  the  doctors'  vouchers  which 
accompany  them,  counted  and  passed  along  to  clerks,  who  separate 
them  into  the  medically  examined  and  the  medically  inspected.  The 
medical  inspections  are  sent  to  the  clerks  in  the  Policy  Division  (a  part 
of  the  Audit  Division),  and  the  medical  examinations  are  handed  to 
other  clerks.  The  doctors'  reports  of  inspections  and  examinations  are 
examined,  and  if  there  are  any  facts  contained  in  a  report  that  the 
clerk  has  no  authority  to  pass  she  refers  the  application  to  the  Medical 
Examiners  at  this  office,  who  either  pass,  hold  for  correspondence  or 
reject. 

Applications  that  are  finally 
passed  are  then  divided  up  among 
the  clerks,  who  check  them  as  to 
age,  premium,  amount,  insurable 
interest,  first  insurance  or  addi- 
tional insurance,  etc.  Any  dis- 
crepancies discovered  by  these 
clerks  are  either  rectified  or  the 
applications  are  handed  to  the 
head  of  the  Policy  Division  for 
correspondence.  The  applications 
for  second  insurance  are  passed 

The  Numbering  Room 

to  other  clerks,  who  obtain  from 

the  Filing  Section  the  applications  for  previous  insurance.  The  two 
applications  are  then  compared  and  checked.  Applications  that  have 
finally  passed  the  checking  clerks  are  then  collected  by  districts, 
those  for  each  district  being  then  arranged  according  to  assistants,  each 
assistant's  applications  being  alphabetically  arranged  according  to  the 


37 


agents.  They  are  then  sent  to  the  numbering  room,  where  they  are 
numbered  and  dated  by  machinery,  and  returned  to  the  Policy 
Division,  where  they  are  handed  to  the  proper  clerks,  who  from  the 
applications  write  the  official  lists  and  policies. 

After  all  the  lists  and 
policies  have  been  written,  the 
applications  and  policies  are 
carefully  compared.  The  issue 
is  then  ready  to  be  sent  out. 

The  applications  are  then 
sent  to  the  Actuarial  Division, 
where  a  separate  card  is  pre- 
pared for  each  policy.  As  soon  as 
this  is  done  the  applications  are 
sent  to  the  Filing  Division,  where 
they  are  filed  in  numerical  order. 

The  Examining  Section  of 
the  Audit  Division  has  a  force  of 
twentv-eight  clerks  engaged  in  the 

Examining  Section  of  the  Audit  Division 

auditing  of  final  accounts  and  the 
examination  of  collection  books.  The  computations  of  arrears  and 
advance  payments  and  all  additions  on  final  inspections  are  carefully 
verified,  all  errors  corrected  and  the  result  certified  to  the  corresponding 
Audit  Sections,  that  necessary  action  of  release  or  demand  be  taken  on 
the  agent's  bond.  This  section  also  arranges  for  the  supply  to  agents  on 
requisition  of  new  collection  books,  and  by  a  simple  but  complete  card 
index,  sees  to  it  that  the  old  collection  book  is  promptly  returned 
when  the  new  book  is  completed.  A  discriminating  selection  of  these 
old  collection  books  is  made  by  which  several  hundred  of  them  are 
thoroughly  examined  each  month,  followed  by  such  letters  of  criticism 
or  commendation  as  may  be  found  advisable.  The  collection  books  of 
all  agents  promoted  to  assistants  are  called  for  and  examined,  as  well 
as,  from  time  to  time,  the  collection  books  of  active  agents.  There  are 
on  file  in  this  section  at  the  present  time  over  twenty  thousand  old 
collection  books,  containing  a  record  of  the  details  of  the  collection  of 
over  $80,000,000. 

Considerable  work  of  a  statistical  nature  is  done  in  this  section. 


38 


There  are  located  hen: 
eetitage  of  collections 
issue  per  month  |>er  nu 
machines  can 
places  of  i1tvii!».-H'- 


iting  machines  for  computing  per- 
*e  to  allotment,  average  Ordinary 


jmr  iaw  ?m  the  field  force  called  The  Intelligencer,  classifications 
im  the  oouaHry  at  large  being  prepared  therein. 

Agent*  collection  books  are  called  for  by  this  section  without 
previous  notice  to  the  agents,  and  are  given  a  thorough  examination. 
The  amount  collected  each  week  is  checked  page  by  page  with  the 
summary  of  the  agent's  account  and  all  differences  noted.  The  date 
of  last  payment  on  each  policy  is  ascertained  by  computing  the  amount 
collected  from  the  last  known  ''date  of  last  payment,"  as  shown  either 
by  the  date  given  at  the  time  the  collection  book  was  opened  or  in  the 
inspection  book  forwarded  with  the  last  inspection  report.  Similar  check 
t*  made  with  the  last  inspection  report  rendered  by  the  assistant 
'-adctit.    :  ii«4tWW^i^iW*^^        fift^w&iness  lapsed  m  tram 


in  which  all  the  tto 
are  prepared.  Thv 
almost  impossible  th< 
cannot  be  readily  ai 
this  division,  most  ■ 
which  it  h:is  been  fn 


There  are  located  here  several  calculating  machines  for  computing  per- 
centage of  collections,  ratios  of  increase  to  allotment,  average  Ordinary 
issue  per  month  per  man,  etc.  A  single  clerk  by  the  aid  of  one  of  these 
machines  can  complete  fifty  of  these  ratios  correct  to  four  or  more 
places  of  decimals  in  twelve  minutes  with  practically  no  effort,  all  the 
operations  of  multiplication  and  division  being  done  automatically  by 
the  turning  of  a  crank  after  the  original  figures  have  been  correctly 
set  up  thereon. 

This  section  also  assists  in  the  preparation  of  lists  for  the  company's 
publication  for  the  field  force  called  The  Intelligencer,  classifications 
for  the  country  at  large  being  prepared  therein. 

Agents'  collection  books  are  called  for  by  this  section  without 
previous  notice  to  the  agents,  and  are  given  a  thorough  examination. 
The  amount  collected  each  week  is  checked  page  by  page  with  the 
summary  of  the  agent's  account  and  all  differences  noted.  The  date 
of  last  payment  on  each  policy  is  ascertained  by  computing  the  amount 
collected  from  the  last  known  "date  of  last  payment,"  as  shown  either 
by  the  date  given  at  the  time  the  collection  book  was  opened  or  in  the 
inspection  book  forwarded  with  the  last  inspection  report.  Similar  check 
is  made  with  the  last  inspection  report  rendered  by  the  assistant 
superintendent.  The  date  of  last  payment  on  business  lapsed  or  trans- 
ferred is  also  compared  with  the  collection  book  and  complete  report 
of  all  differences  and  errors  forwarded  to  the  superintendent. 

Artuaxial  itmsimt 

The  tenth  floor  is  occupied  by  the  Actuarial  Division — the  division 
in  which  all  the  statistics  so  constantly  needed  regarding  the  business 
are  prepared.  The  classifications  of  the  business  are  so  varied  it  is 
almost  impossible  that  any  question  which  might  pertinently  be  asked, 
cannot  be  readily  answered.  More  than  290  clerks  are  employed  in 
this  division,  most  of  whom  do  little  else  than  handle  the  cards  on 
which  it  has  been  found  necessary  to  record  the  details  of  the  policies 
instead  of  making  the  entries  in  books. 

The  work  of  the  division  is  divided  into  two  sections — Actuarial 
proper  and  Card  Section. 

The  Actuarial  Section  is  subdivided  into  Industrial,  Ordinary  and 
Intermediate  and  is  composed  only  of  men,  and  on  them  devolves  the  labor 


39 


of  collecting  the  data  obtained  from  the  Card  Division.  A  valuation 
of  the  reserve  liability  under  all  the  policies  in  force  in  the  Industrial, 
Ordinary,  Intermediate  and  Special  Class  is  made  each  quarter, 
necessitating  many  thousand  distinct  calculations,  nearly  the  whole  of 
which  are  made  mechanically  on  the  thirty-eight  calculating  machines 
in  use  in  this  section.  These  machines  are  great  labor-savers,  relieving 
the  brain  of  the  monotony  attending  repeated  operations  of  multiplication 
and  division,  saving  time  and  insuring  accuracy.  All  the  difficult 
classifications  necessary  to  be  made,  that  the  requirements  of  the 
Insurance  Departments  of  the  forty  states  where  the  company  does 
business  may  be  met,  are  also  kept  here. 

The  Card  Division  is  divided  into  Issue,  Record  No.  1,  Record 
No.  2,  Classification,  Transfer,  Claim,  Ordinary  and  Dividend. 

The  Issue  Section  receives  the  applications  on  which  policies  have 
been  issued  from  the  Audit  Division  each  week,  and  a  card  is  picked  out 
representing  each  policy  from  cabinets  which  contain  printed  cards  for 
every  form  of  policy  issued,  at  every  age,  every  premium,  every  amount 
of  insurance,  and  for  both  white  and  colored  lives  and  both  sexes.  These 
cards  are  then  carefully  compared  and  sent  to  the  Numbering  Room, 
where  the  number  and  date  of  policy  and  the  district  are  stamped 
thereon,  completing  the  data  needed  for  the  many  classifications. 
They  are  then  again  compared,  classified,  counted  and  finally  arranged 
in  numerical  order  by  districts  and  sent  to  the  Record  Section,  where  they 
are  filed  in  combination  card  desks.  During  the  year  1907  it  required 
1,516,112  cards  for  the  Industrial  issue,  which,  in  order  to  make  the 
various  classifications  and  put  same  in  order  for  filing,  required  that  these 
cards  be  handled  thirty  times,  or  the  equivalent  of  45,483,360  cards 
handled  once.  Schedules  containing  the  various  classifications  of  the 
week's  issue  are  sent  from  this  section  each  week  to  the  Actuarial 
Section,  where  the  particulars  are  entered  on  the  books. 

On  the  Record  Section  devolves  the  task  of  keeping  by  districts  the 
cards  representing  the  policies  in  force.  The  cards  are  filed  in  a  com- 
bination desk  and  card  cabinet,  and  to  each  clerk  is  assigned  a  certain 
number  of  districts.  This  section  receives  each  week  from  the  Audit 
Division  duplicates  of  all  revived,  lapsed  and  transfer  schedules  sent  to 
agents,  that  the  proper  cards  may  be  taken  from  the  district  cabinet  for 
the  purpose  of  cancelation  or  transfer  to  other  districts.    These  cards 


40 


are  classified  by  years  of  issue  kinds  of  policies,  and  each  dislrirt  ot^efced 
with  schedules  received  from  the  Audit  Division. 

insurance  in  fan*     in  ihe  OmM*|M4wi  Slnctinn  tbt-  handbag  of  cards 

new  or  consolidating  old  districts,  or  where  all  the  agencies  are  transferred 
from  one  district  to  another.  The  correctness  of  the  recorded  business 
of  each  district  is  tested  as  often  as  necessary  by  comparing  the  cards 
with  the  life  registers.  In  addition  to  the  above,  paid-up,  lien  and 
extended  insurance  cards  are  kept  in  this  section,  besides  any  additional 
or  extra  work  that  has  to  be  done.  During  the  year  1907  this  section 
handled  nearly  the  equivalent  of  37,000,000  cards. 

i'lic  Claim  Section  each  day  receives  from  the  Claim  Division  the 
papers  connected  with  the  claims  paid  the  previous  day.  A  card  is 
written  for  each  claim,  and  from  these  cards  numerous  classifications  are 
made  to  determmetQlMNndlli*ntoi(  ,tiNefe<Mp1  fferent  localities  at 

the  different  ages  and  under  the  various  foims  of  policies,  anil  including 
one  classification  by  causes  of  death  far  comparison  with  the  general 
mortality  in  different  cities  and  districts. 

In  making  up  the  statistics  the  claim  .r  i  in  sorted  into  63'- 
classifications,  for  use  of  the  Actuarial  Section,     i  his,   in    19QJ,  VM 


( 


dividend  system  was  not  started  until  June,  1907,  and  therefore  was 
in  operation  only  a  little  more  than  six  months  at  the  end  of  that  year. 
In  that  time  the  work,  independent  of  the  writing  and  checking  the 
original  cards,  was  the  equivalent  of  handling  nearly  9,000,000  cards — 
about  1,000,000  dividend  receipts  having  been  sent  out  under  the 
new  system.  During  the  year  1908  more  than  3,000,000  receipts  will 
have  to  be  written,  assorted  and  sent  to  the  field  force. 

The  following  summary  of  the  number  of  times  the  cards  are 
handled  will  give  an  excellent  idea  of  the  enormous  detail  of  the  work 
in  the  Actuarial  Division: 


Issue  Section             1,516,1 12  issue  cards  handled  30  times   45,483,360 

Record  Section  .  .  .    1,192,457  cards  handled  22  times   26,234,054 

Record  Section  .  .  .    139,746  revival  cards  handled  23  times   3,214,158 

Record  Section  .  .  .    15,000  age  correction  handled  45  times   702,000 

Record  Section  .  .  .    680,312  transfers  handled  15  times   10,204,640 

Transfer  Section  .  .  363,372  rewritten  and  transfers  handled  15  &  18  times.  5,685,195 

Transfer  Section .  .    55,000  assumed  cards  handled  22  times   1,110,000 

Transfer  Section  .  .    83,930  paid-up  cards  handled  8  to  57  times   4,183,816 

Transfer  Section.  .    15,377  lien  cards  handled  23  and  28  times   610,521 

Transfer  Section  .  .    13,400  extended  cards  handled  14  and  20  times   217,216 

Transfer  Section   .    4,077,578  dividend  cards  handled  6  times   24,465,468 

Claim  vSection  ....    132,283  claim  cards  handled  72  times   9,524,376 

Ordinary  Section  .  487,000  issue-lapse-transfers  handled  12  and  67  times.  14,965,879 

Dividend  Section  .  1,251,527  lapses-transfers-dividends  handled  5  to  1 1  .  8,570,316 


Total   155,170,999 


©It?  Atjrnry  Itutstmt 

The  company's  field  force,  consisting  of  11,500  members,  is  under 
the  supervision  of  nine  superintendents  of  agencies,  one  of  whom  is 
located  on  the  Pacific  Coast,  each  of  whom  has  charge  of  the  superin- 
tendents, assistant  superintendents  and  agents  and  of  the  District  Office 
clerks  (of  which  latter  there  are  439)  in  certain  States  in  the  United 
States  and  Provinces  in  the  Dominion  of  Canada.  The  office  of  each 
superintendent  of  agencies  and  the  space  occupied  by  the  clerks  associated 
with  them  is  contiguous  to  the  corresponding  section  of  the  Audit  Division, 
the  territorial  divisions  being  identical  with  those  referred  to  in  connection 
with  the  work  of  the  Audit  Division.  The  combined  office  force  of  the 
Agency  Division,  exclusive  of  the  Pacific  Coast,  consists,  in  addition  to 
the  superintendents  of  agencies,  of  fifty  clerks,  twenty-five  stenographers 
and  ten  boys. 


42 


The  superintendents  of  agencies  are,  in  effect,  field  superintend- 
ents on  a  large  scale.  They  are  responsible  in  their  respective  territories 
for  the  field  organization  and  for  the  vigorous  and  successful  prosecution 
of  the  business,  Ordinary  and  Industrial.  Subject  to  the  approval  of 
the  officers,  they  control  the  appointment,  transfer  and  promotion  of 
agents  and  assistant  superintendents,  and  District  Office  clerks,  attend 
to  the  leasing  of  District  Offices  (of  which  there  are  439),  look  after 
the  bonding  of  field  employes,  and  keep  superintendents  and  assistant 
superintendents  informed  in  detail  as  to  their  record,  not  only  by  letter, 
but  by  elaborate  statements  sent  out  at  frequent  intervals,  showing  just 
what  each  staff  has  accomplished  during  a  given  period  and  for  the  year 
to  date  in  all  the  features  of  their  work.  There  are  also  kept  in  the 
Agency  Division  a  record  of  all  the  cities,  towns  and  villages,  and  the 
population  therein  of  the  various  districts;  the  pedigrees  of  the  super- 
intendents, assistant  superintendents  and  District  Office  clerks — name, 
age,  nationality,  languages  spoken,  social  condition,  and  if  married  the 
members  of  the  family — and  a  history  of  their  entire  career  with  the 
company;  a  list  of  candidates  eligible  for  promotion,  and  the  names  of 
those  who  are  members  of  the  Staff  Savings  Fund. 

While  the  superintendents  of  agencies'  headquarters  are  at  the  Home 
Office,  they  spend  much  of  their  time  in  the  field,  visiting  districts  over 
which  they  have  supervision,  studying  local  conditions,  observing  where 
improvements  in  methods  or  management  can  be  effected,  meeting  all 
the  men  and  making  their  close  acquaintance — having  in  mind  the  future 
promotion  of  those  who  are  worthy  of  advancement,  and,  in  general, 
keeping  in  close  touch  with  the  rank  and  file — the  business-getters. 

Weekly  conferences  are  held  by  the  officers  with  the  superintendents 
of  agencies  collectively  (in  the  absence  of  any  of  them  he  is  represented 
by  his  chief  clerk).  At  these  conferences  matters  of  small  and  large 
interest  alike  are  freely  discussed  for  the  information  of  all  concerned. 
While  in  general  this  tends  toward  uniformity  of  practice  in  the 
conduct  of  the  business  in  the  respective  territories,  the  superintendents 
of  agencies  are  not  bound  down  by  any  hard  and  fast  rule.  Sug- 
gestions made  by  the  field  and  Home  Office  employes  are  apprecia- 
tively and  impartially  considered.  Not  infrequently  a  superintendent 
of  agencies  advances  a  new  and  original  idea  that  seems  to  possess 
merit  and  is  not  inconsistent  with   the   established   practice   of  the 


43 


business,  and  permission  is  cheerfully  accorded  him  to  give  it  a  trial  in 
a  particular  district  or  in  his  own  territory.  Some  of  the  greatest  im- 
provements that  have  been  effected  in  plans  and  methods,  and  in  policy 
and  agency  contracts  and  otherwise,  have  thus  had  their  origin. 

The  "Book  of  Comments"  is  a  useful  adjunct  of  this  division.  This 
book  has  given  the  death-blow  to  many  an  aspirant  for  promotion,  it 
possessing  the  perhaps  unhappy  faculty  of  an  excellent  memory. 
Shortcomings  of  any  field  man  seem  bound  to  reach  the  desk  of  the  clerk 
in  charge  of  this  book,  and  without  fear  or  favor  are  permanently  charged 
up  to  his  account.  No  better  endorsement  of  the  manner  in  which  an 
old  employe  has  handled  his  trust  is  needed  than  the  reply  of  "Nothing" 
to  the  question  so  often  put  to  the  keeper  of  comments,  "Is  there 
anything  noted  against  this  man?" 

Premium  Sates;  <xnh  Jtoltry  iflnrmH 

The  original  tables  of  premiums  in  the  Industrial  Department  were 
based  on  the  American  table  of  mortality  and  four  and  one-half  per 
cent,  interest,  with  a  loading  sufficient  to  pay  expenses.  These  tables 
were  found,  after  an  experience  of  many  years,  to  give  satisfactory 
results  only  in  a  general  way;  and  in  September,  1887,  the  amounts 
insured  for  a  unit  of  premium  of  five  cents  were  changed  throughout 
the  table  to  conform  more  nearly  to  the  mortality  actually  experienced. 
After  the  company  had  been  in  the  business  long  enough  to  make  a  safe 
computation,  it  prepared  a  table  of  mortality  from  its  own  experience, 
taking  as  a  basis  the  observation  of  twelve  millions  of  lives.  This  being 
accomplished  by  the  end  of  1895,  the  company  prepared  tables  of 
benefits  combining  life  and  endowment  insurance,  computed  directly  from 
its  experience,  and  put  the  same  into  operation  at  the  beginning  of  1896, 
along  with  its  old  tables,  which  were  the  tables  used,  substantially,  by 
the  other  Industrial  companies.  Although  at  some  ages  the  immediate 
death  benefits  were  less,  yet  as  the  company  was  able  to  add  to  them 
the  promise  of  additions  dependent  upon  the  persistence  of  the  business, 
by  the  end  of  1896  the  company  was  writing  seventy-five  per  cent, 
of  the  infantile  business  upon  them,  and  nearly  sixty  per  cent,  of  the 
adult  business.  Beginning  with  1897,  all  of  the  business  up  to  age  ten 
and  after  age  fifty-nine  was  put  upon  these  tables,  the  life  tables  being 
abrogated  as  to  these  ages.    It  is  believed  that  the  child's  table  was  the 

44 


most  equitable  one  ever  issued  up  to  that  time,  and  was  not  subject  to 
the  objections  which  have  frequently  been  made  to  the  insurance  of 
children,  utterly  mistaken  and  wrong  as  many  of  these  objections  were. 

The  radical  character  of  this  change  can  be  realized  when  it  is 
stated  that  on  these  policies  insuring  the  lives  of  children,  while  the  death 
benefits  previously  given  were  not  diminished,  but  rather  increased,  the 
extra  reserve  required  December  31,  1907,  on  such  of  them  as  were  then 
in  force  amounted  to  $10,887,910;  that  is,  the  reserve  was  that  much 
greater  than  it  would  have  been  if  no  change  had  been  made  in  the 
form  of  infantile  policies. 

In  making  these  changes  on  both  infantile  and  adult  policies,  the 
companv  was  fully  aware  of  the  increased  reserve  obligations  that  it 
would  have  to  assume,  and  in  preparing  the  clause  relating  to  paid-up 
insurance  in  the  event  of  lapse,  it  was  provided  the  amount  of  such 
paid-up  insurance  should  bear  the  same  ratio  to  the  amount  of  insurance 
at  the  time  the  application  was  made,  as  the  premiums  paid  bore  to  the 
total  premiums  payable;  leaving  the  experience  of  the  future  to  deter- 
mine whether  this  rule  was  all  the  business  could  stand.  In  the  year 
1905,  or  the  tenth  year  for  the  experience  on  these  policies,  it  was 
determined  to  liberalize  the  paid-up  feature  by  changing  the  rule  from 
proportionate  parts  of  the  amount  payable  at  the  time  application  was 
made,  to  proportionate  parts  of  the  maximum  sum  insured — that  is, 
the  amount  payable  as  an  endowment  if  the  life  survived  and  the  policy 
kept  in  force  to  the  end  of  the  endowment  period. 

The  company  wrote  but  one  kind  of  insurance  in  the  Industrial 
Department  (whole  life)  up  to  the  year  1892.  Since  then  it  has  written 
fifteen,  twenty,  twenty-five,  and  thirty  year  endowments,  combination, 
and  term  and  endowment  policies.  The  only  forms  in  use  from  1896 
to  1907  were  whole  life,  term  and  endowment,  endowment  with 
deferred  annual  additions,  twenty-year  endowment,  and  endowment  at 
80  for  S500. 

During  the  year  1906  the  company  tabulated  its  mortality  expe- 
rience for  the  preceding  ten  years,  representing  48,508,562  years  of  risk 
and  767,552  claims,  and  from  the  resulting  mortality  table,  which  showed 
a  marked  decrease  in  mortality  when  compared  with  a  similar  table 
prepared  in  1894  from  five  years'  experience,  new  premiums  were  com- 
puted for  new  forms  of  policies. 


45 


Public  demand  seemed  to  have  changed  with  respect  to  the  kind 
of  insurance  wanted,  and  as  the  company  is  in  business  to  please  the 
public,  the  new  policies  were  framed  with  the  view  of  distributing  a 
larger  amount  in  death  benefits  rather  than  of  combining  life  insurance 
with  the  form  of  savings  known  as  endowments. 

The  new  policies,  which  were  first  issued  in  1907,  are  whole  life 
policies,  but  with  premiums  ceasing  when  the  insured  has  reached  age 
seventy-five.  The  new  infantile  tables  provide  in  death  benefits,  for 
a  weekly  premium  of  five  cents,  nearly  as  much  as  the  old  tables  did 
for  a  life  premium  of  ten  cents.  This  was  accomplished  by  using  for 
insurance  the  money  formerly  used  in  children's  policies  for  shortening 
the  endowment  periods.  To  meet  the  limited  demand  which  still  exists 
for  endowment  insurance,  the  company  writes  twenty-year  endowment 
policies. 

In  addition  to  the  new  mortality  table  already  mentioned,  another 
table  based  on  5,275,163  years  of  risk  and  93,266  claims  was  constructed 
from  the  experience  derived  on  a  poorer  grade  of  lives  than  those 
embraced  in  the  first  table,  and  from  this  table  premiums  have  been 
computed  for  insurance  on  lives  coming  within  its  class.  These  policies, 
instead  of  becoming  fully  paid  at  age  seventy-five,  are  endowments  at 
age  eighty. 

A  new  feature  has  been  introduced  in  the  way  of  surrender  values. 
Paid-up  policies  will  be  granted  after  three  years  instead  of  five;  extended 
insurance  will  be  granted  after  three  years  at  the  option  of  the  holder; 
and  cash  surrenders  will  be  paid  after  ten  years. 

When  Industrial  insurance  was  started  by  the  Metropolitan  its 
success,  as  already  stated,  was  by  no  means  assured,  and  it  was  deemed 
prudent,  therefore,  to  leave  special  concessions  in  the  policies  to  such 
experience  as  the  business  might  develop;  but  after  the  company  had 
passed  through  the  formative  period  and  reached  a  position  where  it 
was  abundantly  able  to  meet  every  obligation,  and  be  possessed  of 
an  ample  surplus  besides,  it  was  decided  that  the  time  had  arrived 
to  liberalize  the  policies;  and,  beginning  with  1892,  all  policies  con- 
tained a  clause  providing  for  paid-up  insurance  after  being  in  force 
five   years,   conditioned  on   age   eighteen   having   been    reached.  This 


46 


provision  was  made  retroactive  so  as  to  cover  all  existing  policies,  but 
not  to  go  into  effect  until  January  1,  1897. 

In  the  fall  of  1893,  however,  when  many  people  throughout  the 
country  were  deprived  of  work,  and  therefore  unable  to  continue  the 
payment  of  premiums,  the  company  put  this  paid-up  feature  in  imme- 
diate operation,  and  it  has  been  continuously  in  force  since  that  time. 
In  July,  1895,  it  was  made  more  liberal  to  the  policy-holders  by  increasing 
the  amounts,  and  made  to  apply  also  to  policies  issued  prior  to  that  date; 
and  in  January,  1896,  it  was  still  further  liberalized  by  reducing  the 
minimum  age  from  eighteen  to  fifteen. 

These  paid-up  policies  are  term  policies,  the  amounts  being  computed 
upon  a  mortality  table  based  upon  the  company's  own  experience,  and 
there  is  added  to  the  net  single  premium  a  loading  of  only  ten  per  cent, 
for  expenses,  so  that,  considering  the  character  of  the  risks  insured,  it  is 
believed  they  are  the  most  liberal  paid-up  policies  issued  by  any  company. 

The  question  has  often  been  raised  why  the  paid-up  policies  of  the 
Metropolitan  are  written  for  a  term  of  years  equal  to  the  expectation 
of  life,  rather  than  for  the  whole  of  life.  This  is  a  natural  question,  and 
one  easy  of  explanation.  It  was  known  that  a  great  many  paid-up 
policies  would  be  issued  for  small  amounts.  Large  numbers  of  the 
industrial  classes  have  no  permanent  home,  as  a  rule,  but  move  from 
place  to  place.  In  the  course  of  time  a  large  number  of  these  paid-up 
policies  would  be  forgotten  or  lost.  Many  people  would  die  years  hence 
and  no  claim  would  ever  be  made  on  the  company  for  the  amount  of  the 
insurance,  thus  leaving  many  paid-up  policies  in  full  force  on  the  books 
of  the  company  on  persons  who,  in  the  course  of  time,  would  appear  to 
have  attained  ages  surpassing  those  of  the  Biblical  patriarchs.  The 
company  would  not  be  able  to  mark  these  policies  off  the  books  because 
the  presumption  would  be  that  the  people  were  still  alive.  Therefore, 
liability  would  be  held  open  on  the  books  without  limit.  By  fixing  a 
term  of  years  the  company  is  able,  at  the  end  thereof,  if  no  claim  has 
been  made,  to  cancel  the  liability.  A  paid-up  policy  running  over  the 
expectation  of  life  is  larger  than  it  would  be  for  the  whole  of  life,  so  that 
the  equity  given  to  the  insured  is  as  much  in  one  case  as  it  would  be 
in  the  other.  If,  however,  the  insured  expresses  a  desire  to  have  a 
paid-up  life  policy  for  a  smaller  amount,  his  wishes  are  complied  with. 

The  above  remarks  apply  only  to  paid-up  policies  written  in  lieu 


47 


of  whole  life  policies.  On  all  endowment  policies  the  paid-up  policies 
bear  the  same  ratio  to  the  amount  insured  as  the  number  of  premiums 
paid  bears  to  the  total  premiums  called  for  in  the  contract ;  and  of  course 
the  paid-up  policy  is  paid  at  the  end  of  the  original  endowment  period 
or  at  prior  death.  The  minimum  age  at  which  an  endowment  paid-up 
policy  would  be  written  was  originally  fixed  at  ten  years,  but  in  the  year 
1906  this  rule  was  abrogated.  Since  that  time  all  endowment  policies 
in  force  five  or  more  years  have  been  entitled  to  the  paid-up  provision. 

(Drctttary  9?partmrnt 

The  Ordinary  Department  of  the  Metropolitan  Life  Insurance 
Company,  occupying  the  entire  fourth  floor  and  parts  of  the  first, 
second  and  third,  constitutes  within  itself  a  huge  insurance  company — 
a  giant  among  the  giants.  During  the  year  just  completed,  the  Ordinarv 
Department  produced  new  business  of  one  hundred  and  thirty-five 
millions — a  record  equaled  by  only  one  other  company.  This  insurance, 
when  considered  in  connection  with  the  large  volume  of  Industrial 
business  written,  so  exceeds  the  producing  capacity  of  any  rival,  that 
the  Metropolitan  is  left  practically  in  a  class  by  itself. 

When  it  is  considered  that  only  fifteen  years  ago  this  Department 
reorganized  on  a  non-participating  basis,  the  rank  which  the  company 
has  gained  among  Ordinary  insurance  companies  is  a  marvelous  achieve- 
ment, no  less  masterful  in  its  way  than  the  unprecedented  triumph  of 
the  Metropolitan  in  the  Industrial  field. 

When  reorganized  the  Department  was  modest — a  clerical  force  of 
two  dozen,  and  an  issue  during  1892  of  two  millions  insurance. 
The  Department  now  has  a  clerical  force  of  650.  Every  labor-saving 
device  or  perfection  in  system  that  would  operate  to  keep  the  clerical 
force  within  bounds  has  been  inaugurated  and  successfully  utilized  in 
the  Ordinary  Department.  Even  so,  forces  have  continued  to  grow, 
and  each  succeeding  year  has  left  behind  it  its  quota  of  increase. 

The  Ordinary  Department  contains  in  itself  two  large  subdivisions — ■ 
the  Ordinary  Department  proper,  where  policies  are  issued  for  $1,000 
and  upward,  and  the  Intermediate  Branch,  which  issues  the  $500  policies 
that  have  become  so  popular  with  the  better  grade  of  Industrial  people. 

The  Intermediate  Branch  began  business  July  1,  1896.  It  was 
originally  intended  for  high-class  Industrial  risks,  who  could  hardly  afford 


48 


$1,000  in  the 
on  some  bettt 
of  Ordinary  ii 

on  mortality, 
which  it  »ii 


Ordinary  Department,  but  who  were  able  to  pay  for  $500 
r  pJun  than  weekly  premiums,  and  against  whom  the  doors 
wuraiK-e  protection  had  been  closed. 

I  was  a  new  one,  and  the  rates  charged,  so  far  as  based 
kmatical.  Therefore,  to  avoid  overcharging  a  clientage 
designed  to  benefit,  it  was  agreed  that  the  savings 'in 
uld  be  used  for  paying  dividends.  After  ten  years' 
e.viwH.  ...  special  mortality  tables  were  possible,  and  on  January  1,  L907, 
all  jioltcies  were  made  non-participating,  the  premium  rates  based  upon 
the  new  tables  being  much  reduced. 

The  Branch  was  the  pioneer  in  $500  insurance,  and  its  name, 
"Intermediate,"  has  been  adopted  by  other  companies  which  have 
entered  the  field  for  business  of  the  $500  grade. 

In  ten  years,  as  a  dividend  payer,  it  established  the  world's 
record— paving  higher  dividends  than  any  dividend-paying  company. 

In  business  methods  it  was  forced  to  take  the  initiative  and 
adopt  systems  whereby  Ordinary  business  could  be  conducted  along  lines 
in  keeping  with  an  Industrial  volume.  The  $1,000  Ordinary  conserva- 
tism was  ..ruiibine^^^^lWa^Vidl^lffie^R^^nd  in  the  resulting 
Intermediate  methods  conventional  red  tape 
gave  way  to  the  blue  of  the  typewriter  ribbon, 
and  its  easy  and  improved  machine-like 
methods.  The  writing  of  the  premium  receipts 
*wd  notices  to 'policy-holder-. "in  l>oth  Ordinary 
and  Intermediate,  which  wa-  formerly  done 
by  hand .  is  now  done  on  the  typewriter  by  a 
svsteai  :  il  with  the  company.  By  one 
operatMR.  the  premium  receipt,  the  notice  and 
the  stub  for  the  use  of  the  Branch  Office  are 
written,  as  well  m  the  address  on  the  envelope 
in  which  the  NOticr  is  to  be  mailed.  Later,  this 
part  of  the  work  •  -  "»  iu  done  on  a  piece-work  Thkksti 
bash  instead  of  a».  n  stated  salary.  The  result 
ba«  '**n  most  satis* u torv ,  the  employes  have  been  better  \ 
ki  business  has  beta  rewarded,  and  the  company  lias  done  ii 
rwt  than  under  the  aU  method.    The  vast  number  of  prer 


$1,000  in  the  Ordinary  Department,  but  who  were  able  to  pay  for  $500 
on  some  better  plan  than  weekly  premiums,  and  against  whom  the  doors 
of  Ordinary  insurance  protection  had  been  closed. 

The  field  was  a  new  one,  and  the  rates  charged,  so  far  as  based 
on  mortality,  problematical.  Therefore,  to  avoid  overcharging  a  clientage 
which  it  was  designed  to  benefit,  it  was  agreed  that  the  savings  in 
mortality  should  be  used  for  paying  dividends.  After  ten  years' 
experience  special  mortality  tables  were  possible,  and  on  January  1,  1907, 
all  policies  were  made  non-participating,  the  premium  rates  based  upon 
the  new  tables  being  much  reduced. 

The  Branch  was  the  pioneer  in  $500  insurance,  and  its  name, 
"  Intermediate, "  has  been  adopted  by  other  companies  which  have 
entered  the  field  for  business  of  the  $500  grade. 

In  ten  years,  as  a  dividend  payer,  it  established  the  world's 
record — paying  higher  dividends  than  any  dividend-paying  company. 

In   business   methods  it  was   forced   to  take   the  initiative  and 
adopt  systems  whereby  Ordinary  business  could  be  conducted  along  lines 
in  keeping  with  an  Industrial  volume.     The  $1,000  Ordinary  conserva- 
tism was  combined  with  the  Industrial  liberality,  and  in  the  resulting 
Intermediate  methods   conventional   red  tape 
gave  way  to  the  blue  of  the  typewriter  ribbon, 
and  its    easy  and   improved  machine-like 
methods.    The  writing  of  the  premium  receipts 
and  notices  to  policy-holders,  in  both  Ordinary 
and   Intermediate,   which   was   formerly  done 
by  hand,  is  now  done  on  the  typewriter  by  a 
system  original  with   the  company.     By  one 
operation,  the  premium  receipt,  the  notice  and 
the  stub  for  the  use  of  the  Branch  Office  are 
written,  as  well  as  the  address  on  the  envelope 
in  which  the  notice  is  to  be  mailed.    Later,  this 
part  of  the  work  has  been  done  on  a  piece-work         The  Entire  Clerical  Force  of  the  Intermediate 
basis  instead  of  at  a  stated  salary.    The  result 

has  been  most  satisfactory,  the  employes  have  been  better  paid,  diligence 
in  business  has  been  rewarded,  and  the  company  has  done  it  all  at  a  less 
cost  than  under  the  old  method.  The  vast  number  of  premium  receipts 
sent  out  for  collection,  called  for  a  new  and  easier  method,  and  instead 


49 


of  the  old  system  of  charging  by  hand,  billing  to  the  District  Office  also 
by  hand,  both  are  now  done  in  one  operation  on  the  typewriter,  making 
it  absolutely  impossible  to  bill  a  premium  receipt  to  a  Branch  Office 
without  charging  it,  as  the  one  is  a  carbon  copy  of  the  other.  Another 

benefit  to  the  company  and  the 
Branch  Offices  as  well  has  been 
the  new  renewal  card.  For  each 
policy  issued,  a  card  with  dupli- 
cate is  written :  one  for  the  Home 
Office  and  one  for  District  Office. 
By  this,  the  District  Offices  are  all 
supplied  with  the  same  system, 
all  cards  written  in  plain  type 
and  exact  duplicates  of  the  Home 
Office  records. 

As  in  the  Industrial  Depart- 
ment, the  work  both  in  Ordinary 
and  Intermediate  is  divided  into 
Sections  and  Divisions — Applica- 
tion, Index,  Policy,  Inspection, 
Audit,  Renewal,  Cancelation,  Loan,  Correspondence.  One  of  the 
important  functions  of  the  last-named  division,  and  in  line  with  the 
announcement  elsewhere  herein,  "  that  the  Metropolitan  would  never 
have  a  policy  lapse  if  it  could  prevent  it,"  is  the  addressing  to  the 
policy-holder  on  the  lapse  of  his  insurance  of  a  letter,  over  the  signature 
of  the  President,  inquiring  as  to  the  reasons  for  giving  up  the  insurance 
and  urging  him  to  revive.  About  $10,000,000  of  insurance  is  revived 
annually  this  way.  Through  the  polite  solicitude  of  this  Department, 
many  a  dissatisfied  policy-holder,  nursing  imaginary  grievances,  is 
transformed  into  a  loyal  supporter  of  the  company.  This  division 
furthers  one  of  the  great  aims  of  the  company — that  of  not  only 
retaining  its  policy-holders,  but  of  keeping  them  thoroughly  satisfied. 

Ifntrrmritiat?  Urattrij  of  tlx?  (irohtani  Srjmrtmrttt 

Industrial  insurance,  by  reason  of  the  necessity  of  weekly  collections 
at  the  homes  of  the  insured,  is  expensive.  Yet  among  the  working 
classes  there  are  many  willing  to  pay  premiums  less  frequently  if  they 


50 


can  get  insurance  in  smaller  amounts  than  are  common  with  Ordinary 
companies.  This  caused  the  officers  to  give  serious  consideration  to  the 
question  whether  a  considerable  portion  of  the  population  not  reached 
in  canvassing  either  for  Ordinary  applications  (where  the  minimum 
amount  insured  is  SI, 000  and  the  minimum  premium  S10)  or  in  the 
Industrial  Department,  where  the  premiums  are  payable  weekly,  might 
not  be  reached  bv  a  form  of  insurance  intermediate  between  the 
Ordinary  and  Industrial. 

The  two  important  elements  which  entered  into  the  discussion 
of  the  question  were  mortality  and  expense.  The  experience  of  the 
company  justified  the  assumption  that  the  rate  of  mortality  likely  to 
prevail  among  the  intermediate  class  of  risks  would  be  higher  than 
among  the  insured  in  the  Ordinary  Department.  At  any  rate  it  was 
not  deemed  wise  to  adopt  rates  based  on  the  rate  of  mortality  prevailing 
among  what  are  generally  designated  as  "Selected  Lives";  and  therefore 
the  net  premium  was  based  on  the  Industrial  table  of  mortality. 

With  these  considerations  governing  the  groundwork  of  the  scheme, 
tables  of  rates  were  adopted  in  July,  1896,  with  practically  the  same 
loading  for  expenses  as  that  used  in  the  Ordinary  Department  of  the 
company,  on  different  forms  of  whole  life  and  endowment  policies  for 
S500  only.  The  experience  on  the  lives  of  persons  insured  under  these 
Intermediate  policies  was  kept  separate,  and  from  the  surplus  accruing 
dividends  have  been  paid  at  the  end  of  five  years  and  annually  thereafter. 

It  is  evident  that  this  plan  of  insurance  supplied  a  public  want, 
from  the  fact  that  at  the  end  of  1906  there  were  315,308  Intermediate 
policies  in  force  (including  paid-up  policies),  insuring  SI 55,0 14,3 12  and 
representing  an  annual  premium  of  57,860,364.56. 

It  may  be  surmised  how  well  the  company  was  able  to  do  for  policy- 
holders in  this  Branch  from  the  dividends  paid  as  shown  in  the  following 
table : 

1901    $10,236.92  1905  $368,219.02 

1902    65,026.30  1906    598,279.16 

1903     121,555.45  1907   834,902.37 

1904    218,528.65 

During  the  year  1906  a  law  was  passed  in  the  state  of  New  York 
prohibiting  companies  from  writing  both  participating  and  non-partici- 
pating insurance  after  that  year.    As  about  ninety  per  cent,  of  the 


51 


business  of  the  Metropolitan  was  non-participating,  and  the  field  force 
had  been  thoroughly  imbued  with  the  soundness  of  the  company's 
policy  which  had  brought  about  this  record,  it  was  decided  henceforth 
to  write  non-participating  insurance  only.  For  this  purpose  a  new 
mortality  table  was  prepared  from  the  company's  actual  experience  on 
lives  in  the  Intermediate  Branch  and  premiums  computed  thereon,  with 
the  addition  of  a  small  loading  for  expenses  and  contingencies.  All 
policies  issued  through  this  Branch  since  January  1,  1907,  are  non-par- 
ticipating. In  1907  about  $51,500,000  of  paid-for  business  was  written 
and  revived  in  this  Branch — a  larger  amount  than  ever  before. 

^pmal  (Class  Ukatirij  of  tlje  (Miliary  Sr-partmettt 

This  class  was  inaugurated  in  1899  for  the  purpose  of  saving  to  the 
agents  and  the  company  business  on  lives  which  could  not  be  accepted 
as  standard  risks. 

The  subject  was  not  new  and  had  been  given  careful  consideration 
for  years.  There  were  various  plans  in  operation,  both  in  this  and  other 
countries,  for  handling  such  risks.  The  two  most  prominent  of  these 
plans  were: 

First. — Rating  up  the  age  of  the  insured. 

Second. — Placing  the  insured  in  a  class  by  themselves  for  the 
period  of  twenty  years,  the  surplus,  if  any,  derived  from  that  class  to 
be  distributed  at  the  end  of  that  time;  and  in  some  cases  liens  were 
attached  against  the  insurance. 

These  plans,  however,  require  the  placing  of  each  individual  risk  in 
some  particular  class — either  to  determine  how  many  years  should  be 
added  to  the  actual  age,  or  the  amount  of  lien  that  would  be  supposed  to 
be  an  adequate  measure  of  deterioration  of  the  risk. 

This  company  decided  to  adopt  another  and  distinctive  plan  and 
to  transact  the  business  along  the  same  lines  that  Ordinary  life  insurance 
is  transacted,  namely,  on  the  broad  lines  of  general  averages;  and  that 
the  same  premiums  and  the  same  conditions  should  be  imposed  on  those 
who  should  be  accepted  without  attempting  particularly  to  differentiate 
between  the  real  or  assumed  degrees  of  hazard.  To  accomplish  this  result 
it  was  necessary  to  base  the  premiums  on  a  table  of  mortality  which 
showed  a  sufficiently  high  death  rate,  to  avoid  the  possibility  of  failure, 
with  the  proviso  that,  should  any  profit  arise  by  reason  of  the  rate  of 


52 


mortality  being  lower  than  that  assumed  or  from  other  causes,  a  dividend 
could  be  declared  to  existing  policy-holders. 

A  mortality  table  expressing  a  death  rate  equal  to  double  that  shown 
in  the  Actuaries'  table  up  to  age  sixty,  and  from  that  point  gradually 
merging  into  the  Actuaries'  table  itself,  it  was  thought  would  meet  the 
requirements,  and  premiums  were  computed  on  that  basis  with  a  low 
percentage  of  loading  added  for  expenses.  The  company  agreed  to  keep 
a  separate  account  of  these  policies  and  from  the  surplus  earned,  if  any, 
to  pay  a  dividend  at  the  end  of  five  years,  at  the  end  of  ten  years,  and 
annually  thereafter.  These  premiums  were  computed  on  the  basis  of 
$1,000  of  insurance,  and  of  course  were  higher  than  the  Ordinary  rates, 
particularly  on  all  forms  of  life  policies.  The  object,  however,  was  not 
to  charge  the  increased  rates  per  $1,000  of  insurance,  but  to  adapt  the 
amount  of  insurance  to  the  published  rates  for  standard  risks,  and  so 
the  rule  of  proportion  was  invoked  to  ascertain  the  amount  of  insurance 
that  could  be  given  for  the  regular  published  rates  at  all  ages  and  all 
kinds  of  insurance.  If  the  amount  of  insurance  which  the  regular  rate 
per  $1,000  of  insurance  would  purchase  on  the  basis  of  this  new  table 
was  $700,  then  the  nominal  amount  of  insurance  was  made  $1,000  with 
a  lien  of  $300,  and  this  lien  of  $300  was  to  be  reduced  by  the  application 
of  surplus  as  stated  above.  This  reduction  of  the  lien  simply  means  that 
the  amount  of  insurance  is  increased  over  the  original  $700.  The 
American  table  of  mortality  doubled  was  substituted  for  the  Actuaries' 
table  of  mortality  doubled  at  the  time  New  York  State  adopted  the 
American  table  of  mortality,  and  three  and  one-half  per  cent,  interest,  as 
a  standard  for  valuation.  The  experience  of  the  company  on  this  business 
has  been  very  interesting,  instructive  and  satisfactory. 

When  by  reason  of  the  new  insurance  law  in  New  York  State  the 
company  decided  to  go  on  a  non-participating  basis  exclusively,  it  was 
thought  that  the  experience  of  the  company  on  these  lives  furnished 
sufficient  data  to  construct  a  new  table  of  mortality,  which  would  serve 
as  the  basis  of  new  calculations  for  premiums  on  non-participating 
policies.  This  was  done,  and  it  is  a  cause  for  congratulation  that  the 
experience  on  these  policies  issued  during  the  year  1907  has  been 
satisfactory  in  every  way.  The  number  of  policies  issued  was  much  larger 
than  in  any  preceding  year,  and  the  ratio  of  Not  Taken  policies  was 
only   about   one-half   that   experienced    under   the   old   system.  This 

53 


seems  to  indicate  that  there  is  a  repugnance  in  the  public  mind  against 
having  a  lien  charged  against  the  insurance. 

Under  the  new  non-participating  plan  the  policies  are  not  issued 
for  a  nominal  sum  of  $1,000  carrying  the  amount  of  insurance  which  the 
regular  premium  for  a  standard  risk  would  purchase,  but  $1,000  is  the 
actual  unit  of  insurance.  The  premiums  are  published  and  risks  taken 
on  that  basis. 

ileiitral  Stutaum 

In  this  division  the  permanent  force  comprises  forty-nine  clerks, 
which  number  is  increased  to  seventy-five  by  draft  on  the  Audit 
Division  on  Mondays  and  Tuesdays.  In  the  Industrial  Department 
policies  are  issued  but  once  a  week,  namely,  on  Thursday,  and  the  efforts 
of  the  division  are  directed  to  the  promptest  possible  examination  of 
Industrial  applications,  so  that  the  policies  may  be  in  the  agents'  hands 
for  delivery  by  the  following  Monday.  Applications  for  insurance  in  the 
Ordinary  Department  and  Intermediate  Branch  receive  daily  consideration, 
and  the  number  of  cases  handled  is  very  large.  Nine  physicians  on  the 
staff  are  in  constant  attendance,  examining  applicants  and  applications, 
passing  death  claims  and  supervising  the  important  work  of  the 
division.  The  correspondence  regarding  the  appointment,  discipline  and 
the  retirement  of  medical  examiners  is  also  conducted  in  the  Medical 
Division,  and  the  records  and  accounts  of  nearly  five  thousand  examiners 
are  cared  for.  With  each  despatch  of  Industrial  applications  from  the 
field,  and  with  every  application  in  the  Ordinary  Department  and 
Intermediate  Branch,  a  voucher  is  sent  to  the  Home  Office  calling  for 
the  proper  fees,  which  is  audited  and  credited  to  the  examiners  in  the 
ledgers,  and  checks  for  the  total  amount  of  credit  are  sent  to  each 
examiner  once  in  three  months. 

There  is  provided  in  this  division  a  retiring  room  to  which  are 
brought  clerks  from  all  parts  of  the  building  who  may  be  in  need  of 
medical  service,  and  such  care  and  attention  as  the  Home  Office  force 
requires  is  here  rendered. 

A  well-equipped  laboratory  for  urinary  analysis  is  located  on 
the  tenth  floor,  for  such  cases  as  in  the  judgment  of  the  field 
examiner  or  the  Home  Office  require  this  test.  The  examination  is 
chemical  and  microscopical,  and  has  proven  its  value   as  an  aid  to 

54 


the  careful  and  sen 
made  annually. 


ction  of  risks.    Twelve  th<»u 


are 


Thi 


renntt: 

SUDCfil 


$hr  arrasurrr'a  Dtutsunt 


of  fifty-one  clerks,  receives  a 
•nts  due  District  Offices  for  s 
tendents  and  agents,  and  all 


>remiums.  This 


were 


mty-six  check  books,  eight 


and  three  ledge 


:ord 


•  them  in  collecting  regular  weekh 
hiMii  ded  into  eight  territorial  sections,  coi 
Audit  Divisions.  Each  section  has  a  cashier,  ac 
The  total  cash  receipts  handled  by 

It  necessitates  thirteen  cash  books,  t\ 
salary  blotters,  sixteen  account  blotters 
these  transactions. 

The  approximate  number  of  checks,  drafts,  money  orders  and  postal 
notes  deposited  in  the  banks  for  collection  during  1907  was  127,472;  the 
approximate  number  of  checks 
drawn  for  1907  was^&O&V,^ 

During    1907   a    total  of 
129.087  death  claims  were  paid 

fees  for  medical  exunnn 
These  checks  are  sent  to  the 
examiners  quarterly,  and  aggre- 
gate 14,<MMI  | 

division  require*; 
of  clerks,  who  « 

approximate  num 
was  245.000. 


annum. 

I  Section  of  this 
I   large  force 


lhat  proper  vouchers  are 
.turned    properly  receipt* 


the  careful  and  scientific  selection  of  risks.  Twelve  thousand  tests  are 
made  annually. 

©rrasurrr's  Stmatmt 

This  division,  with  a  force  of  fifty-one  clerks,  receives  all  district 
remittances  and  makes  all  payments  due  District  Offices  for  salaries  of 
superintendents,  assistant  superintendents  and  agents,  and  all  expenses 
incurred  by  them  in  collecting  regular  weekly  premiums.  This  division  is 
subdivided  into  eight  territorial  sections,  conforming  with  the  Agency  and 
Audit  Divisions.  Each  section  has  a  cashier,  account  clerk  and  general  clerk. 

The  total  cash  receipts  handled  by  this  division  in  1907  were 
555,066,169.42. 

It  necessitates  thirteen  cash  books,  twenty-six  cheek  books,  eight 
salary  blotters,  sixteen  account  blotters  and  three  ledgers  to  record 
these  transactions. 

The  approximate  number  of  checks,  drafts,  money  orders  and  postal 
notes  deposited  in  the  banks  for  collection  during  1907  was  127,472;  the 
approximate  number  of  checks 
drawn  for   1907  was  160,000. 

During  1907  a  total  of 
129,087  death  claims  were  paid 
through  the  Claim  Section  of 
this  division.  This  work  is  done 
by  seven  clerks,  who  also  draw 
the  checks  in  payment  of  the 
fees  for  medical  examinations. 
These  checks  are  sent  to  the 
examiners  quarterly,  and  aggre- 
gate 14,000  per  annum. 

The  Mailing  Section  of  this 
division  requires  a  large  force 
of  clerks,  whose  duty  it  is  to 
mail  all  outgoing  remittances, 
death  claim  checks,  etc.,  and  see  that  proper  vouchers  are  enclosed; 
also  that  these  vouchers  are  returned  properly  receipted.  The 
approximate  number  of  forms  filed  by  this  section  during  1907 
was  245,000. 


55 


Ill  this  division  are  also  kept  the  general  ledger,  cash  book,  etc., 
in  which  all  transactions  made  by  the  company  are  recorded;  likewise 
the  record  of  purchases  and  sales  of  bonds  and  stocks,  of  which  the 
company  now  owns  nearly  $100,000,000,  and  of  bonds  and  mortgages 

amounting  to  over  $75,000,000. 

In  addition  the  weekly  pay 
rolls  for  Home  Ofhee  employes, 
numbering  about  3,000,  are  made 
up  here. 

The  Bond  and  Mortgage 
Section,  which  is  under  the  super- 
vision of  the  treasurer,  is  directly 
in  charge  of  the  comptroller.  All 
loans  on  bond  and  mortgage  are 
made  through  this  section,  as 
well  as  collection  of  rents  and 
general  care  of  the  Home  Office 
and  other  real  estate  belonging 

The  Bond  and  Mortgage  Vault  to  the  company. 

The  security  vault,  which 
now,  although  not  nearly  all  occupied,  contains  bonds  and  stocks 
of  the  value  of  $100,000,000,  is  ten  feet  deep  and  thirty-two 
feet  wide,  and  is  of  the  most  approved  construction — burglar  and 
fire  proof.  The  available  space  would  accommodate  $750,000,000. 
As  an  added  element  of  safety,  the  entire  vault  is  sheathed  in 
mahogany,  with  metal  lining  so  arranged  that  any  tampering  with  the 
sheathing  would  sound  an  alarm  at  protective  headquarters. 

The  door,  of  which  we  give  a  representation,  weighs  ten  tons, 
but  is  so  delicately  adjusted  that  one  person  can  easily  swing  it. 

(UIjp  (Claim  Simaum 

One  of  the  most  delicate  of  scientific  instruments  is  the  seismo- 
graph. This  wonderful  device,  when  properly  placed  in  position, 
will  record  in  this  country  earthquakes  that  happen  on  the  other  side 
of  the  globe.  It  was  only  recently  that  the  severe  earthquakes  in 
Chili  were  recorded  very  accurately  on  the  seismographs  in  the  United 
States. 


56 


The  Claim  I 
is  one  of  the  most 
hours  after  a  great 
collision  or  panic 


the  Metropolitan  Life  Is 
disaster  recorders  extant 
i\ where  in  the  country,  fie 
el  or  sinking  ship,  the  to 


orapany 


ed  upon  to 


before  the  debris  of  disaster  had 
been  cleared  away,  the  Metro- 
politan was  paying  claims  on 
account  of  the  victims  of  that 


flfaUy-eight  claims  on  Metropolitan  policy-holders 

"Portland,"  Nov«h»mt   1898,  and  nineteen  on  the  li\ 
went  down  with  the  U.  S.  S.  "Maine"  in  Havana 
Twenty-four  claims  were  paid  as  the  result  ui  tfc 


The  Claim  Division  of  the  Metropolitan  Life  Insurance  Company 
is  one  of  the  most  accurate  disaster  recorders  extant,  for  within  a  few 
hours  after  a  great  accident  anywhere  in  the  country,  be  it  by  fire  or  flood, 
collision  or  panic,  sinking  land  or  sinking  ship,  the  roll  of  those  holding 
policies  in  the  Metropolitan  is 
made  up,  and  the  money  for 
which,  in  most  instances, calamity 
has  made  a  pressing  necessity  is 
supplied  to  those  called  upon  to 
perform  the  last  offices  for  the 
dead. 

It  is  interesting  to  note 
that  in  the  Johnstown  flood, 
before  the  debris  of  disaster  had 
been  cleared  away,  the  Metro- 
politan was  paying  claims  on 
account  of  the  victims  of  that 
catastrophe,  and  the  payments 
covered    sixty-one    Industrial  the  Claim  Division 

policies. 

Sixty-eight  claims  on  Metropolitan  policy-holders  were  paid  as  the 
result  of  the  St.  Louis  tornado  in  1896. 

Eleven  claims  were  paid  as  the  result  of  the  wreck  of  the  steamboat 
'  Portland,"  November,  1898,  and  nineteen  on  the  lives  of  sailors  that 
went  down  with  the  U.  S.  S.  '"Maine"  in  Havana  harbor  in  1898. 

Twenty-four  claims  were  paid  as  the  result  of  the  Galveston  flood, 
Texas,  in  1900.  Four  Metropolitan  policy-holders  were  killed  in  the 
Martinique  disaster  by  the  eruption  of  Mount  Pelee  in  1902,  and  thirteen 
in  the  Iroquois  (Chicago)  theatre  fire  on  December  30,  1903.  Three  of 
the  thirty-three  victims  of  the  explosion  in  the  U.  S.  S.  "Missouri's" 
turret  on  April  13,  1904,  were  insured  in  the  Metropolitan.  Three 
hundred  and  fifty-seven  death  claims  were  paid  on  the  lives  of  those 
burned  on  the  excursion  steamer  "General  Sloeum,"  June  15,  1904. 
Xine  claims  were  paid  on  those  killed  in  the  Emerson  Shoe  Factory 
boiler  explosion,  Brockton.  Mass.,  March  20,  1905.  Sixty-four  claims  as 
the  direct  or  indirect  result  of  the  San  Francisco  earthquake  and 
fire,  April  18,  1906,  were  paid. 


57 


Eleven  of  the  victims  of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  wreck  at  Atlantic- 
City,  N.  J.,  October  28,  1906,  and  twenty-one  of  those  lost  in  the  sinking 
of  the  Joy  Line  steamer  "Larehmont"  in  Long  Island  Sound  on  February 
11,  1907,  were  insured  in  the  Metropolitan. 

Fifteen  claims  were  paid  upon  the  victims  of  the  Monongah  mine 
disaster  in  West  Virginia,  resulting  in  the  death  of  406  men,  on 
December  6,  1907. 

Claims  under  forty-two  policies  were  paid  upon  thirty-four  children 
lost  in  the  Collingwood  School  disaster  in  the  suburbs  of  Cleveland, 
Ohio,  on  March  4,  1908.  Fire  swept  through  the  building,  and  166  boys 
and  girls  and  two  teachers  were  lost  in  the  panic  that  ensued.  The 
.money  for  these  claims  was  in  the  hands  of  the  parents  the  day 
following  the  terrible  event. 

The  deaths  in  these  great  disasters,  however,  form  but  an 
infinitesimal  part  of  the  total  number  paid  by  the  Metropolitan, 
averaging  as  they  do  between  four  hundred  and  five  hundred  a  day. 
In  one  day  the  claim  payments  ran  as  high  as  809. 

The  total  number  last  year  was  137,270,  averaging  one  claim  for 
every  sixty-four  seconds  of  each  business  day  of  eight  hours,  amounting 
to  $18,233,369.58— an  average  of  $124.95  for  each  minute  of  each 
business  day  of  eight  hours. 

The  Metropolitan  Life  Insurance  Company  has  offices  in  forty  states 
in  the  United  States,  also  in  the  provinces  of  Canada,  and  during 
the  year  1907  paid  claims  on  insured  who  died,  not  only  in  every  state 
and  territory  in  the  United  States  and  in  Canada,  but  also  in  the 
following  foreign  countries:  Africa,  Argentine  Republic,  Australia, 
Austria,  Azores  Islands,  Barbados,  Belgium,  Bermuda,  Bohemia,  Brazil, 
Canal  Zone,  Cape  Verde  Islands,  China,  Cuba,  Denmark,  England, 
France,  Germany,  Guam,  Hawaii,  Holland,  Hungary,  Hong-kong, 
Ireland,  Italy,  Jamaica,  Mexico,  New  Zealand,  Norway,  Porto  Rico, 
Panama,  Portugal,  Rumania,  Russia,  Scotland,  South  Africa,  Sweden, 
Switzerland,  Spain,  Syria,  Wales. 

It  requires  a  force  of  fifty  clerks,  stenographers  and  typewriters 
to  handle  the  death  claims  and  complete  the  comprehensive  mortuary 
records  of  the  company.  Death  claims  when  properly  proved  are 
always  remitted  the  day  the  papers  are  received  at  the  Home  Office, 
and  in  cases   where    a    remittance   would  be  more   than  one  day  in 


58 


reaching  the  claimant,  the  payment  is  usually  made  by  telegraph,  and 
frequently  in  cash  by  the  superintendents,  the  prompt  payment  of  claims 
ever  having  been  one  of  the  features  by  which  the  company  has  secured 
the  confidence  of  the  insuring  public. 

Not  all  the  business  in  this  division  has,  however,  to  do  with 
deaths.  Over  fifty-seven  per  cent,  of  the  Industrial  business  of  the 
Metropolitan  is  on  the  endowment  plan,  and  maturing  claims  under  these 
policies  are  settled  through  this  division. 

Since  its  organization  the  Metropolitan  has  paid  1,611,404  death 
claims,  amounting  to  $184,539,485.63. 

aimiefitirjatum  itutatntt 

The  Investigation  Division,  as  its  name  implies,  takes  in  hand  all 
investigations,  whether  of  members  of  the  field  force  or  of  cases  reported 
by  the  agents  or  policy-holders  as  needing  special  attention.  Changes  of 
beneficiaries  under  Industrial  policies  are  handled  here  to  the  number 
of  over  2,000  a  week. 

One  of  the  features  of  the  Industrial  policies  issued  by  this  company 
is  the  right  to  a  free,  or  paid- 
up,  policy  after  premiums  have 
been  paid  for  five  or  more  years. 
More  than  1,500  of  these  policies 
are  issued  each  week  through 
this  division,  on  applications 
submitted  from  policy-holders, 
through  the  company's  local 
representatives.  In  order  that 
the  company  may  be  satisfied 
that  every  policy-holder  who  has 
ceased  payment  of  premium  on 
a  policy  which  has  been  in  force 
for  five  years  or  over,  under- 
stands his  or  her  right  to  one  The  Investigation  Division 
of  these  free  policies,   there  is 

sent  out  from  the  Investigation  Division  to  the  holder  of  every  such 
policy  reported  for  lapse,  a  notice  advising  him  of  just  what  amount 
of  free  insurance  he  is  entitled  to  and  how  to  proceed  to  procure  it. 


59 


These  notices  are  not  sent  through  the  company's  representatives  in  the 
field,  I iti t  mailed  direct  to  the  policy-holders.  All  complaints  by  mail 
are  referred  to  the  Investigation  Division,  as  well  as  all  callers  desiring 
information  regarding  Industrial  policies. 

More  than  3,500  letters  a  week  leave  this  division,  mostly  in  reply 
to  inquiries  as  to  rights  and  privileges  of  the  Industrial  policy-holders. 

Fifteen  outside  inspectors  are  connected  with  this  division,  who  are 
constantly  employed  in  making  special  investigations  or  inspections  on 
behalf  of  the  Home  Office.  Their  movements  are  controlled  from  here, 
and  each  of  the  important  divisions  is  furnished  daily  with  slips  showing 
the  location  of  each  inspector  and  the  work  on  which  he  is  engaged. 

In  addition  to  these  inspectors,  there  is  a  corps  of  supervisors 
constantly  employed  in  checking  up  the  accounts  of  cashiers  in  the  local 
offices,  and  thoroughly  instructing  new  appointees. 

(SHjilo  dlnsnranrr  in  Ujf  fonts  latnrea 

Although  the  system  of  child  insurance  at  its  inception  and  during 
its  early  years  was  discussed  by  the  Superintendents  of  the  Insurance 
Departments  of  the  principal  states,  and  with  much  favor,  several 
attempts  have  been  made  by  legislative  action  to  prohibit  insurance  on 
the  lives  of  children. 

In  1889  a  bill  was  introduced  in  the  Legislature  of  Pennsylvania, 
based  upon  the  recommendation  of  the  Governor  of  the  state  in  his 
previous  annual  message  (that  in  turn  having  been  based  upon  the 
recommendations  of  certain  alleged  charitably  disposed  people  in 
Philadelphia),  seeking  to  make  it  unlawful  to  insure  the  lives  of  children. 
The  committees  of  the  two  Houses  to  which  the  bill  was  referred,  after 
a  hearing  and  due  consideration,  unanimously  decided  that  no  legislation 
was  called  for.  Again,  in  1897,  similar  bills  were  introduced  into  both 
Houses.  There  was  a  hearing  before  the  Senate  Committee  of  an  officer 
of  the  Metropolitan.  There  attended  with  him  before  the  committee 
Dr.  James  W.  Walk,  the  general  secretary  of  the  Central  Board  of 
Directors  of  the  Society  for  Organizing  Charity  of  Philadelphia,  com- 
prising eighteen  charitable  associations,  and  often  spoken  of  as  "  The 
Associated  Charities."  Dr.  Walk  entered  an  earnest  protest  against  the 
passage  of  the  bill  and  spoke  most  eloquently  in  favor  of  Industrial  child 
insurance.    There  were  submitted  to  the  Senate,  also,  a  strong  letter 


60 


from  J.  Lewis  Crew,  Esq.,  secretary  of  the  Pennsylvania  Society  to 
Protect  Children  from  Cruelty,  which  he  concluded  by  saying  that  he 
did  not  think  that  public  policy  would  authorize  any  interference  on  the 
part  of  the  Legislature  in  the  present  system  of  child  insurance  as  he 
apprehended  it  to  exist;  and  letters  from  T.  M.  Porter,  secretary  and 
superintendent  of  the  Western  Pennsylvania  Humane  Society,  head- 
quarters at  Pittsburg;  Mrs.  L.  P.  Wilson,  the  president,  in  1896,  of  the 
Western  Division  of  the  Children's  Aid  Society,  dated  Altoona;  and  Mrs. 
F.  B.  Reed,  president,  and  Mrs.  A.  R.  Powell,  secretary,  of  the  Children's 
Aid  Society,  Clearfield  County — all  of  which  letters  declare  that  the 
writers  had  known  of  no  abuses  arising  from  child  insurance;  and  also 
a  letter  from  Dr.  Walk  giving  the  substance  of  his  oral  address  before 
the  committee.  The  bill  was  earnestly  debated  in  the  Senate,  and  was 
defeated  by  a  vote  of  thirty-three  to  ten;  and,  a  few  days  after,  the  House 
bill  was  abandoned  by  its  author  and,  upon  his  motion,  struck  from  the 
calendar.  Similar  bills  in  1903  and  1907  died  in  committee,  which  did 
not  even  dignify  them  by  a  hearing. 

In  1890  a  similar  bill  was  introduced  into  the  New  York  Legislature 
and  was  urged  with  great  persistence  by  its  author;  but  after  careful 
consideration  the  Insurance  Committee  reported  adversely.  In  1902  a 
similar  bill  was  killed.  Meanwhile,  in  1892,  the  Legislature  expressly 
approved  of  child  insurance  by  adopting  as  a  part  of  the  Insurance  Code 
the  tables  of  benefits  of  the  Metropolitan  Life  Insurance  Company.  In 
1906  the  matter  was  considered  by  the  Armstrong  Committee,  which 
reported  in  favor  of  the  business,  and  a  bill  introduced  to  prohibit  child 
insurance  was  defeated. 

A  bill  was  introduced  in  1891  in  Massachusetts,  concerning  which 
the  Insurance  Commissioner,  in  his  report,  says:  "During  a  session  of 
the  Legislature  of  the  present  year  an  order  was  presented  and  considered 
by  the  Insurance  Committee  looking  to  the  restriction  of  insurance  upon 
infantile  lives,  and  forbidding  insurance  on  any  life  without  the  knowledge 
of  the  person  insured.  It  was  shown,  however,  that  the  companies  now 
use  every  precaution  to  prevent  the  latter.  It  did  not  appear  that  under 
the  practices  of  the  companies  engaging  therein  additional  safeguards 
against  imposition  nor  in  the  line  of  better  public  policy  could  well  be 
applied  to  the  former,  and  the  report  of  the  committee  '  inexpedient  to 
legislate,'  was  accepted  without  dissent." 


61 


In  1895  the  most  determined  effort  which  has  ever  been  made  in 
this  country  to  restrict  child  insurance  was  undertaken  in  Massachusetts. 
It  was  instigated  primarily  by  a  charitable  society,  but  other  and  less 
creditable  influences  made  the  contest  severe.  The  taking  of  testimony 
before  the  joint  committee  occupied  six  weeks,  and  the  newspapers  gave 
it  the  widest  publicity.  This  company  drove  the  complainants  completely 
from  their  charges  of  child  murder  arising  from  insurance.  There  is 
probably  no  state  in  the  Union  where  a  larger  proportion  of  the  entire 
population  holds  Industrial  policies  than  Massachusetts,  and  therefore 
the  people  knew  that  the  statements  which  were  made  in  favor  of  the 
bill  were  either  gross  exaggerations  or  base  falsehoods;  and  the  members 
of  the  two  Houses,  coming  in  touch  with  their  constituents,  were  so 
thoroughly  convinced  of  the  will  of  the  people  in  regard  to  the  bill,  that 
when  it  came  up  for  passage  it  was  defeated  by  a  vote  of  149  to  23. 
In  1897  and  1898  similar  bills  were  introduced,  but  were  not  pushed 
beyond  formal  hearing,  on  which  the  joint  committee  made  adverse 
reports.  In  1903,  1904  and  1906  bills  to  limit  the  amount  of  insurance 
on  children  were  defeated  both  in  committee  and  by  a  vote  of  the  House. 

The  agitation  of  child  insurance  in  other  states  has  with  a  single 
exception  met  with  action  favorable  to  the  business.  In  Ohio,  in  1895, 
the  commission  appointed  to  prepare  an  Insurance  Code  adopted  as 
part  of  the  Code  the  same  permissive  provisions  regarding  child  insurance 
which  in  1892  were  placed  in  the  Insurance  Code  of  New  York  State, 
referred  to  above.  The  Code  failed  of  passage  in  Ohio,  but  a  separate 
bill  to  prevent  child  insurance  in  that  state  failed  of  passage  in  1896,  in 
1898,  and  also  in  1900,  where,  after  a  full  hearing,  the  senator  who 
introduced  the  bill  cast  the  only  vote  in  its  favor.  The  Insurance 
Commissioner  of  Illinois  in  1895,  and  again  in  1897,  proposed  to  the 
Legislature  to  enact  a  permissive  law;  and  although  this  was  not  done, 
bills  to  prohibit  the  business  were  defeated  in  that  state  in  1897,  1899, 
1901  and  1907.  In  1897,  the  Insurance  Commissioner  of  Wisconsin  asked 
his  Legislature  to  pass  a  permissive  law.  The  Insurance  Commissioners  of 
Massachusetts,  Pennsylvania,  New  York,  Ohio,  New  Jersey,  Connecticut 
and  Illinois  wrote  letters  in  1899  to  the  Commissioner  of  Colorado  in 
response  to  the  inquiry  of  the  last-named,  in  which  they  all  took  ground 
in  favor  of  child  insurance.  The  Insurance  Commissioner  of  Colorado 
wrote  that  he  did  not  receive  a  single  unfavorable  reply  to  any  letter  of 


62 


inquiry  sent  out  by  him.  Propositions  to  enact  obstructive  legislation 
have  been  defeated  in  the  following  states:  Connecticut,  1893;  Tennessee, 
1895  (after  a  full  hearing),  and  in  1899  and  1901;  Michigan,  1895,  1899, 
1903  and  1905;  Georgia,  1895;  Delaware,  1897;  Missouri,  1893,  1897, 
1899,  1901  (after  a  hearing  before  the  committee)  and  1903;  New 
Hampshire  in  1903  (after  a  full  hearing  on  both  sides  before  the 
Insurance  Committee,  by  a  practically  unanimous  vote  of  nearly  four 
hundred  members),  and  1905  and  1907;  California  (unanimous  vote  after 
hearing),  1903;  Indiana,  1901  and  1903;  Utah,  1903;  North  Carolina,  1903; 
Wisconsin,  1901  and  1903,  the  latter  after  a  newspaper  discussion  in 
which  the  Bishop  of  Fond  du  Lac  vigorously  defended  and  supported  the 
business,  and  1905;  Virginia,  1904  and  1906;  Minnesota,  1905;  in  the 
United  States  Congress,  1906.  In  Colorado  some  years  ago,  under  the 
governorship  of  Mr.  Waite,  who  became  so  notorious  by  his  attack  on 
President  Cleveland,  a  law  was  enacted  forbidding  insurance  of  children. 
Only  one  company  was  doing  the  business  there  and  its  insurance  in  force 
was  small.  The  bill  was  passed  without  giving  the  company  a  hearing, 
although  one  was  sought.  In  1899  the  Insurance  Commissioner  of  the 
state  endeavored  to  get  the  law  repealed.  The  repealer  was  passed  by 
the  lower  House  and  reached  the  Senate  but  a  few  days  before  adjourn- 
ment. Although  a  majority  of  the  senators  were  in  its  favor,  the  final 
adjournment  came  before  action,  through  the  threat  of  a  small  minority 
to  force  an  extra  session  by  talking  out  the  remainder  of  the  session. 
They  were  aided  by  a  ruling  of  the  chair  that  a  motion  to  adjourn  was 
debatable,  and  that  it  was  competent  on  such  a  motion  to  debate  the 
question  of  child  insurance.  Whole  pamphlets  on  the  subject  were  sent 
up  to  the  clerk  to  read  in  order  to  exhaust  time.  After  thirteen  hours 
of  contest  the  bill  was  abandoned  by  its  friends  in  order  to  save  the 
calling  of  an  extra  session  to  pass  other  necessary  bills.  In  this  contest 
not  only  the  letters  from  the  Insurance  Commissioners  of  Massachusetts, 
Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  Illinois,  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Connecticut  and 
Colorado  favoring  child  insurance  were  used,  but  letters  from  Mrs.  Plaid, 
a  charity  worker  among  the  factory  operatives  of  Holyoke,  Mass. ;  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Newton,  president  of  the  Associated  Charities  of  Pueblo,  Col.; 
Rev.  Father  Malone,  editor  of  the  Colorado  Catholic;  Secretary  of  the 
Navy  Long,  sometime  vice-president  of  the  Massachusetts  Society  for 
the  Prevention  of  Cruelty  to  Children,  the  general  secretary  and  several 


63 


agents  of  the  Louisville,  Ky.,  Charity  Organization  Society,  and  Thomas 
T.  Stokes,  director  of  the  Associated  Charities  of  Boston,  all  in  favor  of 
child  insurance,  were  used. 

The  Dominion  of  Canada,  in  1895,  refused,  after  a  long  debate,  to 
prohibit  or  even  restrict  child  insurance.  At  an  earlier  date  the  provincial 
Legislature  of  Ontario  passed  a  law  giving  direct  authority  to  do  child 
insurance  according  to  the  table  of  benefits  of  one  of  the  insurance 
corporations  of  that  province;  and  subsequently  raised  this  table  to 
conform  in  some  respects  with  the  table  of  benefits  of  the  Metropolitan 
Life  Insurance  Company  of  New  York;  and,  in  1897,  this  law  was 
re-enacted  into  the  Insurance  Code  of  Ontario.  In  1908  a  similar  law 
adapted  to  the  Metropolitan  tables  was  submitted  by  the  Government 
to  and  passed  by  the  Provincial  Parliament  of  Quebec. 

In  England,  notwithstanding  many  agitations  and  investigations, 
Parliament  passed  an  act  in  1896  re-enacting  the  same  limitations  of 
child  insurance  as  were  enacted  in  1855,  forty-one  years  before.  This 
fixes  the  limits  up  to  the  age  of  ten,  but  leaves  the  people  free  to  insure 
their  children  for  any  amount  after  age  ten.  We  believe  that  every 
agitation  in  England  has  resulted  either  in  no  action  at  all,  or  in  the 
liberalizing  rules  respecting  child  insurance. 

The  results  of  the  contests  in  Massachusetts,  Pennsylvania  and 
Ohio  (in  1900),  undoubtedly  arose  from  the  popular  approval  of  child 
insurance.  As  three  Industrial  companies  had  in  force  in  Pennsylvania 
at  the  time  of  the  agitation  a  million  and  one-third  of  Industrial 
policies,  and  had  in  force  in  Massachusetts  at  the  time  of  the  agitation 
there  half  a  million  policies,  and  in  Ohio,  in  1900,  six  hundred  thou- 
sand policies,  it  may  be  said  that  there  was  ample  knowledge  of  the 
system  of  child  insurance,  which  is  an  integral  part  of  Industrial 
insurance,  on  the  part  of  the  people  of  these  states.  So  the  fact  that 
at  the  time  of  the  agitation  in  England  over  four  millions  of  children 
under  ten  years  of  age  were  insured  there,  doubtless  discloses  the  real 
reason  for  the  failure  of  agitation  in  that  country  against  child  insurance. 
The  working  people  desire  the  privilege,  and  have  never  abused  it. 

Ulhe  l^omf  ©fftr?  Arrmmt  Durisum 

The  only  divisions  of  the  Home  Office  on  the  ground  floor  are 
the  Home  Office  Account,  the  Cashiers   of  the  Ordinary  Department 


64 


and  Intermediate  Branch,  the  Loan  and  the  Mail  Divisions,  these  being 
placed  on  the  ground  floor  to  save  the  time  of  callers,  a  large  majority 
of  whom  have  business  to  transact  with  one  or  another  of  these  divisions. 

On  the  corner  of  Madison  Avenue  and  Twenty-fourth  Street  is  the 
Home  Office  Account  Division.  This  is  for  the  accommodation  of  the 
holders  of  weekly  premium  poli- 
cies who  do  not  care  to  have  an 
agent  call  for  their  payments  and 
who  either  come  themselves  or 
send  their  premiums  direct  to  the 
company,  and  to  which  policy- 
holders who  have  removed  to 
places  where  the  company  has 
no  established  agency  forward 
their  premiums.  There  are  over 
40,000  policies  in  this  account, 
the  annual  collections  from  which 
are  a  quarter  of  a  million  dollars. 
The  weekly  remittances  received 
here  are  over  2,500  in  number — 
cash,  checks,  postage  stamps, 
express  and  post-office  orders, 
received  each  week. 

Premiums  are  regularly  received  from  Argentine  Republic,  Australia, 
Austria,  Belgium,  Bermuda,  W.  I.;  Brazil,  Canada,  Cape  Colony,  Africa; 
Chili,  China,  Cuba,  W.  I.;  Denmark,  England,  France,  Germany,  Hawaiian 
Islands,  Honduras,  Hungary,  Ireland,  Italy,  Jamaica,  W.  I.;  Mexico, 
Natal,  Africa;  Newfoundland,  New  Zealand,  Norway,  Panama,  Porto 
Rico,  W.  I.;  Russia,  Samoa,  Scotland,  Spain,  Sweden,  Switzerland,  The 
Philippines,  Transvaal,  Africa;  Turk's  Island,  W.  I.;  Wales. 

The  old  charge  that  a  life  insurance  company  makes  money  out  of 
lapses,  and  so  encourages  them,  has  never  been  true  of  the  Metropolitan. 
No  Metropolitan  policy  would  ever  lapse  if  the  management  could 
prevent  it,  and  no  effort  is  spared,  once  a  policy  is  on  the  books, 
to  keep  it  there.  The  company  believes  that  a  business  worth  getting 
is  worth  keeping;  that  the  policies  that  stay  are  the  policies  that  pay. 
While  the  company  has  representatives  in  over  10,000  places,  policy- 


The  Home  Office  Account  Division 


Of  the   latter,  more   than    1,500  are 


65 


holders  frequently  move  where  the  company  is  not  represented.  The 
district  in  which  the  policy-holder  formerly  resided  then  notifies  the 
Home  Office  Account  Division,  and  a  letter  is  sent  to  the  policy-holder 
requesting  him  to  keep  his  insurance  in  force,  and  giving  minute  direc- 
tions as  to  the  method  to  he  pursued.  If  not  heard  from  within  the 
grace  period  allowed  to  all  holders  of  weekly  premium  policies  (four  weeks) 
a  second  notice  is  sent,  again  urging  the  continuation  of  the  policy. 

©lj?  Jfrmtinu  ippartnmtt 

A  small  bookbindery  was  established  in  the  year  1897  on  the 
eleventh  floor  of  the  Twenty-fourth  Street  building,  it  having  been  found 
extremely  inconvenient  to  send  the  many  forms,  which  it  was  necessary 
to  bind  for  preservation,  outside  the  building,  owing  to  the  continual 
occasion  for  references  thereto.  In  a  short  time  a  small  printing  press 
was  added;  in  1899  the  department  moved  into  a  room  in  the  basement, 
55x100,  and  added  two  large  cylinder  presses  and  several  jobbers.  In 
1902  the  department  had  proved  such  a  success  it  was  determined  to 
erect  a  building  for  its  permanent  home,  and  in  October,  1903,  ground 
for  the  Annex  was  broken.    The  building  was  completed  early  in  1905, 

when  one  of  the  most  complete 
printing  and  binding  plants  in  the 
country  was  installed,  occupying  six 
floors  (about  25,000  feet  of  space). 

The  equipment  consists  of  two 
large  rotary  presses,  especially  built  for 
The  Metropolitan,  which  print  (the 
cover  in  four  colors  and  the  inside  in 
one  color)  paste  and  fold  this  little 
magazine  and  deliver  it  into  a  receiving 
box,  all  ready  to  send  out,  at  the  rate 
of  500  copies  per  minute,  or  30,000  per 
hour;  seven  large  cylinder  presses  (one 
Manager's  office  of  which  is  a  two-color  press)  equipped 

with  automatic  feeders;  two  job  presses 
with  automatic  feeders;  eight  job  presses — hand  feed;  one  special  card 
press  that  takes  the  stock  from  a  roll  and  prints  in  three  colors- -punches 
several  holes,  trims,  cuts  off  one  corner  of  the  cards  and  delivers  them 


66 


which  takes  the 


roll,  prints,  pun< 
l'  5 ,000  per  hour ; 
uuhines  (one  of 


one  hand  aim  one  power  bitei  uu.  pi«-»», 
one  plate  press,  one  rotary  board  cutter, 
and  one  book  saw,  each  of  which  is 
equipped  with  the  latest  type  of  indi- 

the  K oliler  multiple  push-button  system. 


Department  consumed  2,401 
of  paper.    It  required  44 


The  Press  Room,  Printing  Department 


Composing  Room 


at  the  rate  of  15,000  cards  per  hour;  one  special  press  for  blank  forms, 
which  takes  the  stock  from  a  roll,  prints,  punches,  trims  and  delivers 
the  finished  forms  at  the  rate  of  5,000  per  hour;  one  bronzing  machine; 
two  type  setting  and  casting  machines  (one  of  which  casts  job  type) ; 
one  electrotype  saw  and  trimmer,  two  ruling  machines,  four  cutting 
machines,  one  book  trimmer,  two  book 
sewing  machines,  two  wire  stitchers, 
two  numbering  machines,  one  paging 
machine,  one  indexing  machine,  two 
punching  machines,  two  perforating 
machines,  two  folding  machines  with 
automatic  feed,  two  stamping  presses, 
one  hand  and  one  power  steel  die  press, 
one  plate  press,  one  rotary  board  cutter, 
and  one  book  saw,  each  of  which  is 
equipped  with  the  latest  type  of  indi- 
vidual electric  motor,  and  the  rotary 
and  cylinder  presses  are  equipped  with 
the  Kohler  multiple  push-button  system. 

In  addition  to  the  foregoing  will  be  found  all  the  type,  furniture,  hand 
tools  and  other  material  that  go  to  make  up  a  well-equipped  printing 
and  binding  establishment. 

According  to  the  Souvenir  Bulletin  printed  and  issued  in  1897, 
the    companv's    printed    matter    then    required    1,000,000   pounds  of 
paper — from    which  45,324,878  forms 
or  circulars  wTere  printed. 

During  the  past  year  the  Printing 
Department  consumed  2,400,000  pounds 
of  paper.  It  required  44,631,000  im- 
pressions of  the  presses  to  use  up  this 
paper  in  the  production  of  106,240,000 
forms,  circulars,  booklets,  etc.,  which 
does  not  include  the  calendars,  nor 
The  Metropolitans  distributed  in 
Canada,  nor  large  quantities  of  forms 
and  other  matter  printed  in  the 
Dominion  and  on  the  Pacific  Coast.  Job  Press  Room 


0; 


Every  issue  of  The  Metropolitan  uses  up  a  web  of  paper  2,134 
miles  long,  which  weighs  300,000  pounds.  Ten  thousand  packing  cases 
are  required  each  year   to   ship  The  Metropolitan  to  the  various 

District  Offices  for  distribution. 

By  a  specially  designed  electrical 
device  the  manager  of  the  department, 
sitting  at  his  desk  on  the  sixth  floor, 
may  know  at  a  glance  what  presses  and 
machines  are  in  operation  all  over  the 
building.  During  the  busy  months 
there  are  125  employes,  and  the 
department  does  all  the  printing,  blank 
books,  etc.,  required  by  the  Home 
Office  and  field  force.  The  department 
is  not  only  a  great  convenience,  but  is 
the  source  of  a  saving  of  many  thou- 
sands of  dollars  annually. 

©to*  ffltxxl  Stmmmt 

The  Mail  Division  is  on  the  first  floor,  with  entrance  direct 
from  Twenty-fourth  Street.  Twenty-nine  clerks  are  employed  in  this 
division.  While  "P.  O.  Box  No.  1,  Madison  Square  Station"  is  the 
designation  on  much  of  the  mail  matter  received  by  the  company,  as  a 
matter  of  fact  no  mail  ever  reaches  the  box,  and  no  post-office  box 
ever  constructed  would  hold  a  thousandth  part  of  the  company's 
•postal  matter.  Before  the  establishment  of  a  branch  post-office  in  the 
Metropolitan  Building,  the  company  was  obliged  to  have  its  own  horse 
and  wagon  to  carry  mail  to  and  from  the  General  Post-Office,  and 
has  despatched  this  way  in  a  single  day  forty-five  sacks  of  mail  matter. 

The  Government  has  few  better  customers  than  the  Metropolitan, 
the  annual  postage  on  its  incoming  and  outgoing  mail  representing  an 
expenditure  of  over  $125,000. 

As  soon  as  the  mail  bags  are  received  in  the  Mail  Division,  their 
contents  are  dumped  on  large  tables  and  the  entire  force  sorts  it  by 
divisions.  All  incoming  mail  from  the  company's  field  representatives  is 
enclosed  in  envelopes  bearing  some  special  designation.  In  order  to 
facilitate  the  rapid  sorting  of  the  mail  in  this  division  and  to  still  further 


68 


expedite  the  work,  superintendents  are  furnished  with  enclosure  envelopes, 
on  which  a  lead-peueil  cross  or  check  will  designate  the  subdivision  for 
which  the  enclosure  i*  intended.  Envelopes  not  bearing  any  special 
designation  are  ofier- <i  in  the  division,  the  contents  r  ipulb  seanned, 
and  deposited  in  the  proper  basket. 

Therv  an-  in  this  division  four  hydraulic  presses  cm  which  letters 
were  formeJrtv  copied.  The  company  gave  up,  however,  several  years 
ago.  the  practice  of  making  letter-press  copies  of  correspondence ;  carbon 
t-opie*  «tf  til  correspondence  are  now  made  on  the  typewriter,  fastened 
in  ctMHMlQf »eal  ofdir  to  other  correspondence  on  the  same  subject  and 
then  filed  in  lx>x  files,  the  correspondence  first  being  noted  on  the 
tompuny  s  Ixioks  in  such  a  manner  that  it  can  readily  be  located  at 

This  led,  of  course,  to  the  discarding  of  an  invention  formerly 
used  in  the  Mail  Division— the  electric  dryer.  When  letters  were  copied, 
it  was  necessary  to  dry  them  before  they  were  put  in  envelopes,  to  pre- 
vent their  spoiling  other  mail  matter,  and  copy  books — of  which  3,000 
jxiges  were  used  every  two  days — were  dried  in  the  heater,  in  order 
thai  the  pffl  should  not  mildew. 

While  there  may  itntiwiQk^\/fc(Mjjy  misgivings  at  the  time  the 
practice  of  copying  letters  in  a  copy  book  was  discontinued,  several 
years"  experience  has  shown  the  wisdom  of  the  change,  no  case  being 
recorded  where  carbon  copies  of  Home  Office  letters  have  not  been 
available. 

Another  departure  from  old-fashioned  methods  which  the  company 
was  obliged  to  take  a  few  years  ago  was  the  destruction  ol  correspondence. 
Up  to  the  year  1900  every  letter  received  at  the  Home  Office  was  placed 
in  the  files;  the  result  was  such  an  accumulation  that  the  company  could 
not  provide  the  space  necessary  for  the  filing.  Many  hundred  employes 
were  set  at  work  reading  the  accumulated  correspondence,  with  instructions 
to  destroy  all  unimportant  letters.  Under  this  plan  over  1,000,000 
letters  were  consigned  to  the  waste-basket.  Heads  of  all  divisions  are 
"at  the   pn*sent   time  given  authority  to  discriminate  as  to  whether 


expedite  the  work,  superintendents  are  furnished  with  enclosure  envelopes, 
on  which  a  lead-pencil  cross  or  check  will  designate  the  subdivision  for 
which  the  enclosure  is  intended.  Envelopes  not  bearing  any  special 
designation  are  opened  in  the  division,  the  contents  rapidly  scanned, 
and  deposited  in  the  proper  basket. 

There  are  in  this  division  four  hydraulic  presses  on  which  letters 
were  formerly  copied.  The  company  gave  up,  however,  several  years 
ago,  the  practice  of  making  letter-press  copies  of  correspondence;  carbon 
copies  of  all  correspondence  are  now  made  on  the  typewriter,  fastened 
in  chronological  order  to  other  correspondence  on  the  same  subject  and 
then  filed  in  box  files,  the  correspondence  first  being  noted  on  the 
company's  books  in  such  a  manner  that  it  can  readily  be  located  at 
any  future  time. 

This  led,  of  course,  to  the  discarding  of  an  invention  formerly 
used  in  the  Mail  Division — the  electric  dryer.  When  letters  were  copied, 
it  was  necessary  to  dry  them  before  they  were  put  in  envelopes,  to  pre- 
vent their  spoiling  other  mail  matter,  and  copy  books — of  which  3,000 
pages  were  used  every  two  days — were  dried  in  the  heater,  in  order 
that  the  pages  should  not  mildew. 

While  there  may  have  been  some  misgivings  at  the  time  the 
practice  of  copying  letters  in  a  copy  book  was  discontinued,  several 
years'  experience  has  shown  the  wisdom  of  the  change,  no  case  being 
recorded  where  carbon  copies  of  Home  Office  letters  have  not  been 
available. 

Another  departure  from  old-fashioned  methods  which  the  company 
was  obliged  to  take  a  few  years  ago  was  the  destruction  of  correspondence. 
Up  to  the  year  1900  every  letter  received  at  the  Home  Office  was  placed 
in  the  files;  the  result  was  such  an  accumulation  that  the  company  could 
not  provide  the  space  necessary  for  the  filing.  Many  hundred  employes 
were  set  at  work  reading  the  accumulated  correspondence,  with  instructions 
to  destroy  all  unimportant  letters.  Under  this  plan  over  1,000,000 
letters  were  consigned  to  the  waste-basket.  Heads  of  all  divisions  are 
at  the  present  time  given  authority  to  discriminate  as  to  whether 
letters  shall  be  filed  or  destroyed. 

Between  six  and  seven  thousand  envelopes  leave  the  Mail 
Room  daily,  enclosing  probably  five  times  that  number  of  special 
communications. 


69 


Opening  from  the  Mail  Room  is  the  entrance  to  one  of  the  small 
freight  elevators  running  continually  during  business  hours,  and  used 
solely  for  carrying  mail  and  printed  matter  between  the  different 
divisions.  In  addition  to  this,  there  is  a  special  messenger  service  in 
operation,  making  half-hour  trips  to  all  sections  and  divisions  of  the 
building,  for  the  collection  and  distribution  of  mail  matter. 

iFtltttg  Ji>?rttmt 

All  the  applications  for  insurance,  correspondence,  claim  papers  and 
books  of  record  connected  with  the  Industrial  Department  are  filed  here, 
as  well  as  claim  papers  of  the  Ordinary  Department. 

This  section  has  a  card  index  of  all  the  agents  at  any  time  in  the 
company's  service,  which  contains  over  260,000  cards,  and  another  card 
index  of  every  city,  town  and  village  in  which  one  of  its  agents  does  busi- 
ness. All  the  applications  for  Industrial  insurance  are  sent  to  the 
numbering  room  in  this  section  to  be  numbered  consecutively  by  machine 
after  having  been  passed  by  the  medical  examiners,  and  are  then  sent  to 
the  different  Policy  Divisions  where  the  policies  are  written. 

The  applications  are  finally  sent  to  this  section  again  to  be  placed 
on  file,  arranged  in  numerical  order.  The  number  at  present  in  the  files 
exceeds  32,000,000,  any  one  of  which  can  be  obtained  at  a  moment's 
notice  by  furnishing  the  policy  number. 

The  clerks  in  this  section  take  from  the  filing  boxes  for  changes 
of  various  kinds  about  75,000  applications  per  week,  and  refile  them 
again,  in  addition  to  filing  those  for  the  new  policies — handling,  therefore, 
nearly  200,000  applications  per  week. 

All  the  ledgers  in  which  accounts  of  the  agents  have  been  kept, 
are  here  on  file  and  number  about  1,500.  These  being  too  bulky  to  send 
around  the  building,  clerks  are  kept  in  this  division  to  furnish  particulars 
from  the  books  regarding  the  records  of  former  agents. 

There  are  also  arranged  in  numerical  order  papers  and  documents 
of  various  kinds,  including  millions  of  receipts  for  dividends  paid  to 
policy-holders,  and  paid  checks,  any  one  of  which  can  be  produced  at 
short  notice  upon  receipt  of  a  requisition. 

Here  also  are  on  file  books  containing  the  record  of  every  policy 
that  at  any  time  appeared  in  force  in  any  agent's  account,  since  the 
company  first  entered  the  field  of  Industrial  insurance.    The  volumes, 


70 


M  .i-^woY  (*mtw&  v^wtivj^  ./.ivtcmft  l>\0  \u\  ^nUmE 


Building  for  Old  Records,  Palmer  Avenue,  Yonkers,  N.  Y. 


which  arc  12x18  incho  in  size  and  of  .500  pages  each  mow  number  nearly 
34.000,  arranged  in  order  by  weeks  and  years  and  numbeml  consecutively. 

By  means  ol  this  system  the  clerks  in  the  Traetiu  lion  (thirtv- 
four  in  number)  can  ln«  ate  the  agency  in  which  any  jx>licy  i  |  «l  present 
in  force,  or  where  «hm.  for  what  reason  and  in  which  of  tlir  agents' 
accounts  a  jx»hcy  appeared  when*  canceled.  Through  thi-  i  1  ••<> 
the  compooy  htut  often  succeeded  in  locating  a  missing  rebttivc  or 
friend  of  <*><•  af  it*  policy-holders. 

To  properlv  handle  and  care  for  these  documents  and  books.  I . 
fMMMB  «rr  employed.    Employes  from  other  divisions  are  not  allowed 
in  th*    l:ilu.^   Section.     Wfftten  requisition   musl   be  made  for  anj 
pai>ci   or  l<ook  desired,  which  is 


charged  to  the  clerk  and  credited 
when  returned. 

Steel  cases  are  used  exclu- 
sively for  filing,  most  of  which  are 
subdivided  for  small  boxes  made  to 
lit  the  articles  to  be  filed.  For 
applications  alone  there  are  7  5., 000 
such  boxes. 

Owing  to  the  rapid  accumu 
la  t  ion  of  books  and  papers  and  the 
i,--*»ruti  in  of  all  the  available  space 


building,  on  Palmer  Avenue  in  Yonkers,  N.  Y.,  has  a  floor  area  of  over 
20,000  square  feet  and  will  provide  for  storage  needs  for  many  years. 

The  total  space  occupied  by  the  company  for  filing  alone  exceeds 
50,000  scpiare  feet,  and  its  steel  filing  plant  is  the  largest  in  the  world. 


0>l|p  ^trnograpbir  Itaraut 

at  number  of  Industrial  policies  on  the  company's  books 
i  vast  amount  of  correspondence,  to  promptly  handle 
if  the  services  of  over  200  stenographers.  Seventy-five 
d  among  the  Executive  and  some  of  the  larger  divisions, 


which  arc  12x18  inches  in  size  and  of  500  pages  each,  now  number  nearly 
34.000,  arranged  in  order  by  weeks  and  years  and  numbered  consecutively. 

By  means  of  this  system  the  clerks  in  the  Tracing  Section  (thirty- 
four  in  number)  can  locate  the  agency  in  which  any  policy  is  at  present 
in  force,  or  where,  when,  for  what  reason  and  in  which  of  the  agents' 
accounts  a  policy  appeared  when  canceled.  Through  this  system  also 
the  company  has  often  succeeded  in  locating  a  missing  relative  or 
friend  of  one  of  its  policy-holders. 

To  properly  handle  and  care  for  these  documents  and  books,  125 
persons  are  employed.    Employes  from  other  divisions   are   not  allowed 
in    the   Filing   Section.     Written   requisition   must  be  made  for  any 
paper  or  book  desired,  which  is 
charged  to  the  clerk  and  credited 
when  returned. 

Steel  cases  are  used  exclu- 
sively for  filing,  most  of  which  are 
subdivided  for  small  boxes  made  to 
fit  the  articles  to  be  filed.  For 
applications  alone  there  are  75,000 
such  boxes. 

Owing  to  the  rapid  accumu- 
lation of  books  and  papers  and  the 
absorption  of  all  the  available  space 
in  the  Home  Office  building,  the 
company  erected  in  1907  a  storage 
house  for   the    overflow.  This 

building,  on  Palmer  Avenue  in  Yonkers,  X.  Y.,  has  a  floor  area  of  over 
20,000  square  feet  and  will  provide  for  storage  needs  for  many  years. 

The  total  space  occupied  by  the  company  for  filing  alone  exceeds 
50,000  square  feet,  and  its  steel  filing  plant  is  the  largest  in  the  world. 

dltr  S>tpnnnrapinr  lOuraut 

The  great  number  of  Industrial  policies  on  the  company's  books 
necessitates  a  vast  amount  of  correspondence,  to  promptly  handle 
which  requires  the  services  of  over  200  stenographers.  Seventy-live 
are  distributed  among  the  Executive  and  some  of  the  larger  divisions, 
but   125  are  in  the  Stenographic  Bureau.    A  clerk  desiring  to  dictate 


Agents'  Policy  Records  in  Piling  Section  Contained  in  34,000  Volumes 


71 


applies  to  the  head  of  the  bureau  by  telephone  or  eleetrie  annunciator 
and  a  stenographer  is  at  once  sent,  returning  to  the  bureau  to 
transcribe  the  letters,  which  are  later  distributed  by  messenger  for 
signatures.  Two  telephone  booths  are  available  for  telegrams  or  short 
communications  which  would  not  warrant  the  visit  of  the  stenographer  to 
the  office  of  the  sender.  Twenty-five  phonographs  are  used  for  dictation 
in  different  divisions  and  the  letters  are  transcribed  in  this  bureau. 

Experience  has  shown  that  more  efficient  service  is  secured  at  less 
expense  by  grouping  the  stenographers.  Where  individual  stenographers 
are  allotted  to  a  clerk  or  division  it  is  impossible  to  so  regulate  the  corre- 
spondence that  at  times  there  will  not  be  a  dearth  of  work  and  at  others 
more  than  can  be  promptly  handled.  Again,  a  stenographer  continually 
taking  dictation  from  one  person  or  in  one  division  cannot  compare  in 
general  efficiency  with  one  who  comes  in  contact  with  many  persons  and 
with  the  work  of  many  divisions. 

^ttpnlg  Shrisimt 

The  Supply  Division  is  situated  in  the  basement,  occupying  an 
area  of  10,000  square  feet.  The  rows  of  shelves  with  piles  of  paper 
of  all  sizes  and  hues,  the  stack  of  boxes  containing  envelopes,  the 
cupboards  and  drawers,  are  simply  bewildering  in  variety  and  extent, 
yet  every  one  of  the  over  3,000  forms  stored  here  is  needed  for  the 

transaction  of  the  business,  and 
each  must  be  carefully  watched, 
so  that  there  be  no  time  when 
an  unusual  demand  shall  find 
the  stock  exhausted. 

Supplies  are  shipped  from 
this  division  direct  to  884  Branch 
Offices.  The  number  of  packages 
leaving  this  division  each  year  by 
express  is  almost  30,000,  the  cost 
to  company  for  express  charges 
alone  being  about  $20,000. 
Twenty-four  thousand  pounds  of 
wrapping-paper  and  2,700  balls 
fan  Supply  Division  of  twine  are  used  here  in  a  year. 


72 


©Ije  |!urri|asutg  Arjput's  Stirisum 

The  title  clearly  indicates  the  province  of  the  Purchasing  Agent's 
Division.    All  orders  for  printing,  stationery,  furniture,  etc.,  pass  through 
here.    Elaborate  account  is  kept  from  which  can  readily  be  determined 
the  quantity  of  each  article  pur- 
chased, the  number  of  each  form 
printed,  when,  at  what  cost,  and 
what  became  of  them.  Every 
agency  office  is  charged  on  the 
books  here  with  the  cost  of  every 
article  and  form  sent  to  it.  If 
indication  is  given  of  extrava- 
gance, an  explanation  is  at  once 
called  for. 

To  give  some  idea  of  the 
volume  of  the  work  of  this 
department,  there  were  ordered 
for  the  United  States  and  Canada 

during  the  past  year  111,530,000  The  Purchasing  Agent's  Division 

forms,  booklets,  folders,  calendars, 

etc.,  consuming  several  hundred  tons  of  paper  of  grades  costing  from 
two  cents  to  thirty-five  cents  per  pound;  envelopes  of  various  sizes, 
10,850,000;  in  addition  to  these  1,000,000  government  stamped  envelopes 
were  bought.  There  were  purchased  450,000  blotters,  883  quarts  of  ink, 
600  quarts  of  mucilage,  3,500,000  rubber  bands,  200,000  pens,  5,000 
penholders,  100,000  lead-pencils,  3,500  typewriter  ribbons,  370,000  sheets 
of  carbon  paper,  1,000  rulers,  5,000,000  souvenir  post-cards,  5,500,000 
calendars  and  numberless  other  supplies  in  like  quantity. 

Another  duty  devolving  upon  the  department  is  the  keeping  of 
an  accurate  record  of  all  office  furniture  and  fixtures  in  the  one  thousand 
Branch  Offices  of  the  company.  In  order  that  these  records  shall  be  up 
to  date,  an  inventory  is  called  for  from  every  district  annually;  every 
item  thereon  is  checked  and  any  shortage  or  discrepancy  immediately 
investigated. 

During  the  past  year  there  were  shipped  to  the  various  offices 
22,040,420  copies  of  The  Metropolitan,  a  bi-monthly  paper  issued  by 

73 


the  company,  comprising  thirty-three  editions.  Of  the  above,  1,062,000 
papers  were  delivered  in  the  Dominion  of  Canada. 

Editions  of  this  paper  are  issued  in  the  English,  German,  French, 
Polish,  Italian,  Swedish,  Bohemian,  Hungarian,  Dutch  and  Danish 
languages. 

Srlrnluinr  iRnom 

This  is  a  complete  central  telephone  office  on  a  small  scale.  The 
switchboard  has  972  drops,  requiring  four  operators,  and  sixteen  trunk 

lines  connect  with  the  nearest 
central  station.  The  head  of 
every  division,  and  many  of  the 
subordinate  clerks,  have  indi- 
vidual telephones,  in  addition  to 
which  there  are  several  general 
phones  in  each  division.  The 
daily  calls  average  over  2,500. 

fhmmtattr  (lube  Station 

This  is  the  centre  for  receiv- 
ing and  delivering  the  thousands 
of  messages  that  are  sent  between 
the  different  departments  and 
divisions  of  the  company  in  the 
Home  Office. 

There  are  sixty-one  pneu- 
matic tubes  in  operation. 

They  have  a  combined  length 
of  over  a  mile.  One  extends 
under  East  Twenty-fourth  Street 
into  the  Metropolitan  Annex. 

The  motive  power  for  their 
transmission  is  compressed  air 
under  a  pressure  of  four  and  one- 
half  pounds  to  the  square  inch. 

About  5,000  messages  pass 
through  the  tubes  every  day. 


The  Telephone  Room 


The  Pneumatic  Ti  he  .Station 


74 


tMtooW  Amu  A  m\\  \o  awO 


Slir  Cutirb  unit  iRrrrratum  Unmns 

The  Lunch  Rooms,  whU  h  are  located  on  the  eleventh  and  twelfth 
floors  of  the  Twenty  fourth  Street  side  of  the  Imilding.  are  for  the 
exclusive  accommodate*)  of  the  clerks  employed  by  tht  company. 

. 

■ 

there  are  Lunch  Room?  for  division  heads  and  for  the  executive  oncers. 

space  el  time.  Ihr  most  modern  equipments  for  kitchen,  bake  shop, 
serving  pantriea,  etc..  have  been  adopted.  The  kitchen,  situated  on 
the  roof,  is  spacious,  well  ventilated  and  provided  with  everything 
that  is  modern  for  cooking  purposes. 

The  Gymnasium,  for  the  use  of  the  employes,  is  fitted  with  all  the 
latest  appliances  in  the  gymnastic  line.  A  physical  instructor  attends 
each  afternoon  to  coach  the  clerks.  One  day  in  the  week  the  Gymnasium 
is  reserved  for  the  women  clerks.  The  employes  are  also  allowed  the 
use  of  a  ijortion  of  the  roof  for  recreation. 

The  AmhM)  Hall,  with  a  seating  capacity  of  over  1,000  is  used 
for  ^inventions  of  the  n^totyw^vvAn^^  the  tenants  of  the  Home 

It  is  used  daily  as  a  recreation  room  by  the  women  ek-rks. 

UaHrmrnt  ^rru  frnm  (gHiftrrnatuin  (fcaUrrrj 

lighting,  carpentry,  plumbing,  painting  and  masonry,  all  in  the  hands  of 
competent  mechanics  who  devote  their  entire  time  to  the  Metropolitan. 

From  the  arcade  a  short  flight  brings  visitors  to  the  Observation 
Gallery,  a  platform  entirely  surrounded  by  plate  glass,  permitting  a  fair 
view  of  the  main  Kngine  Room,  with  its  working  units;  but  it  requires 
a  survey  of  the  other  ix>rtions  to  form  a  proper  conception  of  the  plant 
in  the  aggregate. 

The  Boiler  Room,  with  its  generators  of  3,000  horse-power  capacity, 
eml*>dics  the  latest  practice  in  the  selection  of  type,  each  unit  being 
equipped  with  superheaters  of  the  individual  class. 

Furnace  management  receives  attention  by  a  continuous  record 
of  analysis  of  the  line  gases,  each  observation  being  recorded  on  a  chart 


(Eltp  Sitnrij  ann  iRrrrratimt  Snouts 

The  Lunch  Rooms,  which  are  located  on  the  eleventh  and  twelfth 
floors  of  the  Twenty-fourth  Street  side  of  the  building,  are  for  the 
exclusive  accommodation  of  the  clerks  employed  by  the  company. 

The  seating  capacity  of  the  Lunch  Rooms  is  about  1,500,  and  a  noon 
lunch  is  served  to  2,600  clerks,  1,500  of  whom  are  women.  In  addition 
there  are  Lunch  Rooms  for  division  heads  and  for  the  executive  officers. 

In  order  to  handle  such  a  large  number  of  people  in  a  limited 
space  of  time,  the  most  modern  equipments  for  kitchen,  bake-shop, 
serving  pantries,  etc.,  have  been  adopted.  The  kitchen,  situated  on 
the  roof,  is  spacious,  well  ventilated  and  provided  with  everything 
that  is  modern  for  cooking  purposes. 

The  Gymnasium,  for  the  use  of  the  employes,  is  fitted  with  all  the 
latest  appliances  in  the  gymnastic  line.  A  physical  instructor  attends 
each  afternoon  to  coach  the  clerks.  One  day  in  the  week  the  Gymnasium 
is  reserved  for  the  women  clerks.  The  employes  are  also  allowed  the 
use  of  a  portion  of  the  roof  for  recreation. 

The  Assembly  Hall,  with  a  seating  capacity  of  over  1,000,  is  used 
for  conventions  of  the  field  force.  Any  of  the  tenants  of  the  Home 
Office  building  are  also  allowed  to  use  the  hall  for  business  meetings. 
It  is  used  daily  as  a  recreation  room  by  the  women  clerks. 

IBaBfmntf  Btm  from  (itertiattmt  (Sallrrg 

In  the  basement  is  the  mechanical  end  of  the  business — heating, 
lighting,  carpentry,  plumbing,  painting  and  masonry,  all  in  the  hands  of 
competent  mechanics  who  devote  their  entire  time  to  the  Metropolitan. 

From  the  arcade  a  short  flight  brings  visitors  to  the  Observation 
Gallery,  a  platform  entirely  surrounded  by  plate  glass,  permitting  a  fair 
view  of  the  main  Engine  Room,  with  its  working  units;  but  it  requires 
a  survey  of  the  other  portions  to  form  a  proper  conception  of  the  plant 
in  the  aggregate. 

The  Boiler  Room,  with  its  generators  of  3,000  horse-power  capacity, 
embodies  the  latest  practice  in  the  selection  of  type,  each  unit  being 
equipped  with  superheaters  of  the  individual  class. 

Furnace  management  receives  attention  by  a  continuous  record 
of  analysis  of  the  flue  gases,  each  observation  being  recorded  on  a  chart 


75 


The  Boiler  Room 


in  plain  view  of  the  stokers,  showing  at  all  times  the  measure  of  efficienc  y 
of  the  fuel  in  its  process  of  generating  steam  for  the  entire  plant. 

Daily  records  are  kept  of  all  the  composite  features  connected  with 

the  various  services  and  the  power 
demanded  for  each.  The  plant,  in 
its  administrative  workings,  has 
kept  pace  with  the  recognized 
methods  of  recording  amounts, 
data  and  all  necessary  informa- 
tion pertaining  to  a  department 
of  this  class  and  magnitude. 

The  workings  of  the  entire 
plant  are  graphically  shown  on 
a  large  board,  with  colored  lines 
to   distinguish    each  individual 
service.     The  character,  extent 
and  daily  power  output,  together 
with   its  relation    to    the  coal 
pile,  is  interestingly  shown. 
The  illustration  of  the  main  Engine  Room  conveys  some  idea  of  the 
symmetrical  features  of  the  plant.    The  power  required  for  the  buildings 
embraces  the  handling  of  enormous  elevator  traffic,  lighting,  heating, 

ventilating,  refrigerating,  pneu- 
matic and  other  services;  also 
the  operating  of  the  tubular  de- 
spatch of  the  United  States  mail, 
to  and  from  the  General  Post 
Office  and  distributing  stations 
in  various  parts  of  the  city. 

Among  features  command- 
ing interest  are  the  gigantic 
pumps,  delivering  a  water  sup- 
ply at  a  working  pressure  of 
800  pounds  per  square  inch,  for 
the  operation  of  the  elevator 
machines.    The  character  of  this 

Hoard  tN  Chief  Engineer  S  Room  with  Daily  Record  of 

Each  Individual,  Service  particular  service,  together  with 


76 


their  gross  weight  of 
reflect  the  varying 


the  make-up  of  its  parts  to  sustain  the  working  pressure,  offers  an  excellent 
example  of  progressive  engineering,  being  an  interesting  field  to  the  student 
and  professional  in  its  application  to  the  moving  parts.  The  accumulators, 
ascending  and  descending  with 

760  tons, 
amount  of 
traffic  of  the  several  groups  of 
elevators  connected  to  the  svstem. 

Drinking  water  for  the 
employes  is  cooled  here  arti- 
ficially by  hydrous  ammonia, 
and  then  pumped  to  all  the 
different  rooms  in  the  buildinsr, 
there  being  neat  silver  faucets 
with  marble  shelves  in  all  the 
divisions,  the  system  saving  the 
handling:  of  ice  and  the  carrving- 


of  water  for  filling  tanks. 


The  Engine  Room 


?Jar 


*JJfHK  lfcKropolitan  commenced  business  on  the  Pacific  Coast  in  1901. 
I  |L  R*ah*«ng  the  difficulties  attending  the  trunsacnon  <>f  business  with 
policy-holders  and  agents  more  than  three  thousand  miles  away, 
a  fully  equipped  branch  Home  Office,  in  charge  of  an  executive  officer, 
was  established  at  San  Francisco.  Tins  office,  as  we  believe,  is  the  only 
one  of  its  kind  maintained  by  a  life  insurance  company  in  the  world. 
Through  it  all  the  company's  business  west  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  is 
handled  without  reference  to  the  Home  Office  in  New  York. 

The  plan  of  operating  a  separate  and  local  executive  office  to  serve 
a  distant  community  has  proven  a  great  success.  The  business  on  the 
Pacific  Coast  has  grown  so  rapidly,  that  during  1907  the  business  handled 
by  the  Pacific  Coast  Head  Office  exceeded  in  volume  that  of  two-thirds 

of  thfe^Y^^.^-iVM^ fctiH/  .V^'S^tt  ^.rv^)  ^nJtt  <kn*ted  State*  its 

completely  destroyed  the  Pa<  ific  Coast  Head  Office  with  practically  all 

also  of  the  District  ( >ffi«t>  located  in  another  jwirt  of  the  city  and  containing 
duplicates  of  many  of  the  records.  The  history  of  the  life  insurance 
business  does  not  afford  another  example  of  complete  destruction  of  an 
executive  office;  but  the  undaunted  spirit  of  the  people  of  San  Francisco 
in  the  face  of  the  great  calamity  is  well  illustrated  in  the  action  of  the 
companv  s  representatives.  Within  seventy-two  hours  after  the  earth- 
quake and  U-fore  the  fire  had  ceased  burning,  the  largest  floor  space  left 
intact  in  the    iiv  had  been  leased  for  two  vears  and  the  Pacific  Coast 


The  Pacific  Coast  Head  Office,  San  Francisco,  California 


f  artftr  (test  Ifeaii  (§ffit? 

^^rHE  Metropolitan  commenced  business  on  the  Pacific  Coast  in  1901. 
I  J  V  Realizing  the  difficulties  attending  the  transaction  of  business  with 
policy-holders  and  agents  more  than  three  thousand  miles  away, 
a  fully  equipped  branch  Home  Office,  in  charge  of  an  executive  officer, 
was  established  at  San  Francisco.  This  office,  as  we  believe,  is  the  only 
one  of  its  kind  maintained  by  a  life  insurance  company  in  the  world. 
Through  it  all  the  company's  business  west  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  is 
handled  without  reference  to  the  Home  Office  in  New  York. 

The  plan  of  operating  a  separate  and  local  executive  office  to  serve 
a  distant  community  has  proven  a  great  success.  The  business  on  the 
Pacific  Coast  has  grown  so  rapidly,  that  during  1907  the  business  handled 
by  the  Pacific  Coast  Head  Office  exceeded  in  volume  that  of  two-thirds 
of  the  life  insurance  companies  doing  business  in  the  United  States;  its 
Industrial  premium  income  is  exceeded  by  only  four  Industrial  insurance 
companies  besides  the  Metropolitan. 

In  April,  1906,  the  disaster  which  overwhelmed  San  Francisco 
completely  destroyed  the  Pacific  Coast  Head  Office  with  practically  all 
its  large  accumulation  of  original  records.  The  loss  appeared  to  be 
irreparable,  especially  when  taken  in  connection  with  the  destruction 
also  of  the  District  Office  located  in  another  part  of  the  city  and  containing 
duplicates  of  many  of  the  records.  The  history  of  the  life  insurance 
business  does  not  afford  another  example  of  complete  destruction  of  an 
executive  office;  but  the  undaunted  spirit  of  the  people  of  San  Francisco 
in  the  face  of  the  great  calamity  is  well  illustrated  in  the  action  of  the 
company's  representatives.  Within  seventy-two  hours  after  the  earth- 
quake and  before  the  fire  had  ceased  burning,  the  largest  floor  space  left 
intact  in  the  city  had  been  leased  for  two  years  and  the  Pacific  Coast 
Head  Office  was  opened  for  business.  Telegraphic  communication  with 
New  York  was  opened  up  on  the  eighth  day,  and  on  the  following  day  two 
special  express  cars  left  New  York  loaded  with  equipment.  On  the  eighth 
day,  also,  payment  of  death  claims  was  begun,  with  money  secured  by 

79 


messenger  from  Los  Angeles.  On  the  fourteenth  day  the  new  equipment 
arrived  from  New  York  and  the  office  resumed,  as  nearly  as  possible, 
ils  customary  course  of  business. 

The  destruction  of  the  Pacific  Coast  Head  Office,  with  its  mass  of 
invaluable  records,  brought  sharply  to  the  attention  of  the  company  the 
necessity  of  possessing  in  San  Francisco  a  fireproof  home  of  its  own, 
through  which  protection  from  future  loss  might  be  had.  It  was 
therefore  decided,  in  1907,  to  erect  a  building  for  the  sole  use  of  the 
Head  Office. 

This  building  is  located  at  the  northeast  corner  of  Pine  and 
Stockton  Streets,  on  a  lot  137 ^  feet  square,  having  two  main  floors 
and  a  basement,  eighty  feet  square,  and  is  surrounded  by  terraced 
parking.  The  style  is  severely  classic,  consisting  of  six  columns  in  antis 
of  the  Ionic  order  on  each  of  the  four  fronts,  extending  through  two 
stories.  The  main  entrance  on  Stockton  Street  is  reached  by  a  broad 
flight  of  steps. 

The  plot  is  a  characteristic  hilltop  of  the  neighborhood,  commanding 
an  extended  view  of  the  city  and  bay.    Taken  together  with  the  classical 

Greek  architecture  of  the  building,  it  has  been 
aptly  compared  with  the  Acropolis. 

The  building  is  planned  to  meet  the  future 
growth  of  the  company  as  well  as  present  needs. 
It  is  of  the  highest  type  of  fire  and  earthquake 
proof  construction,  and  not  only  a  permanent  land- 
mark in  the  city,  but  undoubtedly  one  of  the 
most  beautiful  buildings  on  the  western  side  of 
the  continent. 

©fitrpfi  in  (®tt\n  (Eittra 

In  addition  to  the  Home  Office  building, 
the  Pacific  Coast  Head  Office,  the  Metropolitan 
Annex  and  the  storage  house  already  referred  to, 
the  company  owns  buildings,  in  which  its  Branch 
Offices  are  located,  in  Minneapolis,  Chicago,  St. 
Louis,  Washington,  Boston,  Baltimore,  Cleveland, 
Burlington,  Vt.,  and  in  Ottawa  and  Quebec, 
Canada. 


so 


ji>prattmt  Klines 


INDUSTRIAL  ORDINARY  INTERMEDIATE 

INDUSTRIAL  RATES  ARE  BASED  LirON  THE  COMPANY'S 
OWN  MORTALITY  EXPERIENCE  WITH  AN  EXPOSURE 
OF  48,508,562  YEARS  OF  LIFE.  INTERMEDIATE  RATES 
ARE  ALSO  BASED  ON  THE  COMPANY'S  EXPERIENCE, 
WITH  AN  EXPOSURE  OF  819,833  YEARS  OF  LIFE. 
EXPERIENCES  IN  BOTH  DEPARTMENTS  ADOPTED  AS 
.STANDARDS  FOR  VALUATION  OF  INDUSTRIAL  AND 
INTERMEDIATE  POLICIES  BY  THE  STATE  OF  NEW  YORK 


Metropolitan! 


JvIew  York  City. 

jfftl  ^TOtt0tD£  TflttOtt  of  the  payment  of the  premium  mentioned  in  the  schedule 

below ,  on  on  before  each  ^ttondat,,  Dotb  |>erebp  agree,  sub/ect  to  the  conditions  below 

and  on  page  2  hereof,  each  of  which  is  hereby  made  a  part  of  this  contract  and  con- 
true  ted  by  the  assured  to  be  a  part  hereof,  to  pay  upon  receipt  of  proofs  of  the  death  of 
the  insured  made  in  the  manner,  to  the  extent  and  upon  the  blanks  required  herein,  and 
upon  surrender  of  this  ^Policy  and  all  ^Receipt  SSoohs,  the  amount  stipulated  in  said 
schedule.  provided,  however,  that  no  obligation  is  assumed  by  the  Company  prior  to 
the  date  hereof,  nor  unless  on  said  date  the  insured  is  alive  and  in  sound  health.  ^he 
Company  may  pay  the  amount  due  under  this  ^Policy  to  either  the  beneficiary  named 
below  or  to  the  executor  or  administrator,  husband  or  wife,  or  any  relative  by  blood 
or  connection  by  marriage  of  the  insured,  or  to  any  other  person  appearing  to  said 
Company  to  be  equitably  entitled  to  the  same  by  reason  of  having  incurred  expense 
on  behalf  of  the  insured,  or  for  his  or  her  burial;  and  the  production  of  a  receipt 
signed  by  either  of  said  persons  shall  be  conclusive  evidence  that  all  claims  under  this 
^Policy  have  been  satisfied. 

~>Yame  of  beneficiary  and  relationship  to  the  insured, 

Elizabeth  Harrison,  mother. 
SCHEDULE  ABOVE  REFERRED  TO. 


Number  of  Policy 

Date 

Name  of  the  Insured 

Sample 

January  1,  1908 

James  Henry  Harrison 

Age  next  birthday, 

Weekly  premium 

Amount  of  insurance 

35  yeara 

1 0  cents 

$122 

One-half  only  of  the  above  sum  payable  if  death  occur  within  six  calendar  months  from  date,  and 
the  full  amount  if  death  occur  thereafter. 

Ill  (L<UltnCS0  ftHbeteOf,  the  said  ^Metropolitan  Cife  insurance  Company  has,  by 
its  President  and  Secretary ,  signed  and  delivered  this  Policy  on  the  date  named  in 
the  said  schedule. 


Adult  Whole  Life. 
Paid  up  at  age  75. 
Non-Participating. 
Form  844.  Ed.  1-1807. 


(«^ 

mi 

la? 
ess 


'<&  ->'\ 
*  ■i  <■<?■ 

§m 


m 

^«*. 

161 

mi 


Secretary. 

5  3*  0  ^  '0*  %c  'fj  *c  "0  3C  M  ^c  f)i 


CONDITIONS. 


If  the  age  of  the  insured  is  not  correctly  stated  herein,  no  greater  amount  will  be  paid  than  the  pre- 
mium hereon  would  have  purchased  at  the  true  age  at  entry. 

Except  where  the  laws  of  the  State  in  which  the  insured  resides  on  the  date  hereof  provide  otherwise, 
no  suit  shall  be  brought  against  the  Company  after  one  year  from  the  date  of  death  of  the  insured.  If  any 
suit  be  commenced  after  one  year,  the  lapse  of  time  shall  be  conclusive  evidence  against  any  claim,  the  pro- 
visions of  any  and  all  statutes  of  limitation  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding. 

This  Policy  is  issued  upon  an  application  which  omits  the  warranty  usually  contained  in  applications, 
and  contains  the  entire  agreement  between  the  Company  and  the  insured  and  the  holder  and  owner  hereof. 
Its  terms  cannot  be  changed  or  its  conditions  varied,  except  by  a  written  agreement,  signed  by  the  President 
or  Secretary  of  the  Company.  Therefore,  Agents  (which  term  includes  Superintendents  and  Assistant  Su- 
perintendents) are  not  authorized  and  have  no  power  to  make,  alter  or  discharge  contracts,  waive  forfeitures, 
or- receive  premiums  on  Policies  in  arrears  more  than  four  weeks,  or  to  receipt  for  the  same  in  the  Receipt 
Book,  and  all  such  arrears  given  to  an  Agent  shall  be  at  the  risk  of  those  who  pay  them,  and  shall  not  be 
credited  upon  the  Policy,  whether  entered  in  the  Receipt  Book  or  not. 

If  this  Policy  be  assigned  or  otherwise  parted  with,  or  if  any  erasure  or  alteration  be  made  herein, 
except  by  endorsement  signed  by  the  Secretary;  or  if  any  premium  shall  not  be  paid  when  due,  this  Policy 
shall  be  void.  And  it  is  agreed  that  the  foregoing  provision  which  avoids  the  Policy  in  case  any  premium 
shall  be  overdue,  shall  not  be  considered  in  any  respect  waived  by  any  act  of  grace  by  the  Company  in 
the  acceptance  of  overdue  premiums  upon  this  or  any  other  Policy. 

Unless  otherwise  stated  in  the  blank  space  below  in  a  waiver  signed  by  the  Secretary,  this  Policy  is 
void  if  the  insured  before  its  date  has  been  rejected  for  insurance  by  this  or  any  other  company,  or  has  been 
attended  by  a  physician  for  any  serious  disease  or  complaint;  or  has  had  before  said  date  any  pulmonary 
disease,  or  chronic  bronchitis,  or  cancer,  or  disease  of  the  heart,  liver  or  kidneys;  or  if  any  Policy  on  the  life 
of  the  insured  has  been  issued  by  this  Company  and  is  in  force  at  the  date  hereof,  unless  this  Policy  con- 
tains an  endorsement  signed  by  the  Secretary  that  such  prior  Policy  may  be  in  force.  The  Company  shall 
not  be  presumed  or  held  to  know  of  the  existence  of  any  previous  Policy,  and  in  such  case  the  issue  of  this 
Policy  shall  not  be  deemed  a  waiver  of  this  condition. 


If  this  Policy  is  or  shall  become  void,  all  premiums  paid  shall  be  forfeited  to  the  Company,  except  as 
provided  on  page  3. 

Proofs  of  death  under  this  Policy  shall  be  made  upon  blanks  to  be  furnished  by  the  Company  and 
shall  contain  answers  to  each  question  propounded  to  the  claimant,  physicians  and  other  persons,  and  shall 
contain  the  record,  evidence  and  verdict  of  the  Coroner's  inquest,  if  any  be  held.  All  the  contents  of  such 
proofs  of  death  shall  be  evidence  of  the  facts  therein  stated  in  behalf  of,  but  not  against  the  Company. 


Form  844.  1-1908. 


Wherever  in  this  Policy  the  words  "the  insured"  are  used,  reference  is  thereby  made  to  the  person  upon  whose  life  the 
Policy  is  issued.    The  Rules  in  your  Premium  Receipt  Book  are  most  important;  read  them  carefully,  also  read  your  Policy. 


Note. — If  claim  arises,  claimant  should  personally  call  at  District  Office  designated  on  the  Premium  Receipt  Book.  Do  not 
employ  undertaker  or  anybody  else  to  collect.  Pay  neither  doctor,  undertaker  nor  agent  for  preparation  of  claim  papers.  Deliver 
the  Policy  only  to  the  Company's  representative.  The  Company  is  glad  to  pay  and  there  is  no  necessity  for  help  or  alleged 
influence  in  collecting.  

Privileges  and  Concessions  to  Policyholders. 

OPTION  TO  SURRENDER  WITHIN  TWO  WEEKS.  If  the  terms  of  this  Policy  are  not  satisfactory 
or  if  its  conditions  are  not  accepted  and  agreed  to,  the  Policy  may  be  surrendered  for  cancellation  at  the 
office  of  the  Superintendent  of  the  district  (his  address  appears  on  the  Premium  Receipt  Book  covering  this 
Policy),  within  two  weeks  from  the  date  hereof;  and  if  so  surrendered  within  said  period,  the  premiums  paid 
hereon  will  be  refunded. 

CESSATION  OF  PREMIUM  PAYMENTS.  Should  the  insured  survive  to  the  first  anniversary  of 
date  of  this  Policy  after  age  seventy=four,  no  further  payment  of  premiums  will  be  thereafter  required. 

INCONTESTABILITY.  This  Policy  shall  be  incontestable  after  two  years,  except  for  fraud  or  mis- 
statement of  age. 

GRACE  PERIOD.  Should  the  death  of  the  insured  occur  while  any  premium  is  in  arrears  not  ex- 
ceeding four  weeks,  the  Company  will  nevertheless  pay  the  Policy,  subject  to  its  conditions. 

REVIVAL.  Should  this  Policy  become  void  in  consequence  of  non-payment  of  premium,  it  may  be 
revived,  if  not  more  than  fifty-two  premiums  are  due,  upon  payment  of  all  arrears  and  the  presentation  of 
evidence  satisfactory  to  the  Company  of  the  sound  health  of  the  insured. 

CHANGE  OF  BENEFICIARY.  Subject  to  the  approval  of  the  Company,  the  insured,  at  any  time 
during  the  continuance  of  this  Policy,  provided  the  Policy  be  not  then  assigned,  may  change  the  beneficiary 
or  beneficiaries,  by  written  notice  to  the  Company  at  its  Home  Office,  accompanied  by  this  Policy,  such 
change  to  take  effect  on  the  endorsement  of  the  same  on  the  Policy  by  the  Company.  After  endorsement 
the  Policy  will  be  returned. 

FREE  POLICY.  After  premiums  upon  this  Policy  have  been  fully  paid  for  the  periods  named  in  the 
table  below,  upon  written  application  to  the  Company,  within  thirteen  weeks  after  any  premium  shall  be 
due  and  unpaid,  made  upon  blanks  furnished  by  the  Company,  accompanied  by  the  surrender  of  this  Policy 
and  all  Receipt  Books,  the  Company  will  issue  a  Free  Policy,  upon  which  no  further  payment  of  premium 
shall  be  required,  in  accordance  with  the  following  table : 


3 

Years 

4 

Years 

5 

Years 

6 

Years 

7 

Years 

8 

Years 

9 

Years 

10 
Years 

ii 

Years 

12 
Years 

13 
Years 

14 
Years 

15 
Years 

16 
Years 

17 
Years 

18 
Years 

19 
Years 

20 
Years 

$3 

$5 

$7 

$9 

$10 

$12 

$14 

$15 

$17 

$18 

$19 

$21 

$22 

$23 

$24 

$26 

$27 

$34 

CASH  SURRENDER  VALUE.  After  premiums  upon  this  Policy  have  been  fully  paid  for  the  periods 
named  in  the  table  below,  upon  written  application  to  the  Company,  within  thirteen  weeks  after  any 
premium  shall  be  due  and  unpaid,  made  upon  blanks  furnished  by  the  Company,  accompanied  by  the  surren- 
der of  this  Policy  and  all  Receipt  Books,  the  Company  will  pay  a  Cash  Surrender  Value  in  accordance  with 
the  following  table : 


10 

n 

12 

13 

14 

15 

16 

17 

18 

19 

20 

Years 

Years 

Years 

Years 

Years 

Years 

Years 

Years 

Years 

Years 

Years 

$7.57 

$8.43 

$9.30 

$10.20 

$11.10 

$12.03 

$12.97 

$13.92 

$14.89 

$15.87 

$21.07 

Note. — The  two  tables  above  are  based  on  a  weekly  premium  of  five  cents.  The  values  of  this  Policy  are  prooortionate  to 
the  premium.  If  the  premium  is  ten  cents  the  values  should  be  doubled.  If  twenty-five  cents  they  should  be  multiplied  by  five, 
and  so  on.    Values  for  subsequent  years  will  be  furnished  on  request. 

EXTENDED  INSURANCE.  If  neither  of  the  above  concessions  providing  for  Free  Policy  or  Cash 
Surrender  Value  is  availed  of,  this  Policy,  after  premiums  shall  have  been  paid  for  three  years  or  more,  will, 
without  any  action  on  the  part  of  the  insured,  be  eligible  for  Extended  Insurance. 


Form  844.    1-1907.    W.  L.    Age  36. 


AXIO  MHOA  M3N  '3nN3AV  NOSIOVW  I  'ON  'AHVJL3H038  3HA  OA 

Aiddv  '3AOA  01  moh  saxnnouavd  aod    av3A  hov3  nadv  ni  avossda  onoo3s  3ha 

NO  »aOA  M3N  NI  013H  81  HOIHM  'ANVdWOO  3HA  JO  SaO±03Uia  dO  NOIA0313  3HA  IV 
TIV1AI  AS  aO  AXOad  AS  aO  NOSa3d  NI  U3HJ.I3  3J.OA  OX  AHOia  V  3AVH  11IM  '3AVQ  SAI 
WOad  aV3A  3NO  U3AdV  '30aOd  NI  8NIVW3a  ±1  31IHM  AOHOd  SIHJ.  dO  aSOIOH  3H-L 

•saaaiOH-Aonod  o±  bollon 


m 


{l  &  M ;?  ^ :  r     ;  0.  ~ 

v  c-^si^  exs^eks-iie^i^  e-s-ss  e,&--zzi  e-ssr; 


NEW  YORK  STANDARD  LIFE  INSURANCE  POLICY 


§ 


f-trn^ttlttaif 


Limited  Payment  Life 

-gflYears 

Age  <?<■?  Amount  $_1QJ)(1Q 
Annual  Premium  $  <7(7<y.jgg- 


No. 


Samp/* 


3(tt  (Eottattoraium 


of  itfp. 


_  annual  omnium  nf_ 


'()  fuo —  Hollara. 


bag  of  _ 


tuari/  ■ 


anb  of  tlye  payment  of  a  like  amount  noon  part; 
— —  20 

 brratft*  r  nnttl_I  full  geara'  prrmtnma  aljall  Ijaup  brm  pain  or  until  ttj*  prior  opatlf  of  tljr  3Jnanrr-o, 


promtfi^H  to  pay 


at  th*  Ijumr  ©ffirr  of  tlje  (Eompany  in  th*  (£ttg  of  Nrm  $ork  upon  rrrript  at  aaib  2?omr  Wf&tt  of  bu*  proof 

of  tlf*  Qpatlf  nf  Oloivart/  O^arriman.   —  . 

a   Jfemyonk   t  fflountff  nf  Yea,  Yonfi   ,  ft,XnXt  „f 


\ot>lt 


Ijrrrin  rallr-b  ttje  3lnaurrb, 


ousana 


JJollara 


Ubs  ang  tnbrutrbn? aa  ljm»nn  to  tljf  Qlompang  anb  ang  unpaib  portion  of  tiff  prrminm,  for  tljr  tljrtt  rurrent 
polirg  grar  upon  anrrrnbrr  nf  tljia  $nlirg,  properly  mrtptrb,  tn  ^Alanganet  3{ar>niman  

-  wife  of  the  insured   tu>nrfiriarj£m,  initfr,  out—  x\$$.  of  wooration. 

(Ctjangf  of  SpttrfiriarjJ. — When  the  right  of  revocation  has  been  reserved,  or  in  case  of  the  death  of  any  beneficiary  under  either  a 
revocable  or  irrevocable  designation,  the  Insured,  if  there  be  no  existing  assignment  of  the  Policy  made  as  herein  provided,  may,  while  the 
Folicy  is  in  force,  designate  a  new  beneficiary  with  or  without  reserving  right  of  revocation  by  filing  written  notice  thereof  at  the  Home 
Office  of  the  Company,  accompanied  by  the  Policy  for  suitable  endorsement  thereon.  Such  change  shall  take  effect  upon  the  endorsement 
of  the  same  on  the  Policy  by  the  Company.  If  any  beneficiary  shall  die  before  the  Insured  the  interest  of  such  beneficiary  shall  vest  in 
the  Insured. 

Payment  of  jlrsnvimitB. — The  Company  will  accept  payment  of  premiums  at  other  times  than  as  stated  above,  as  follows 

Except  as  herein  provided  the  payment  of  a  premium  or  instalment  thereof  shall  not  maintain  the  Policy  in  force  beyond  the  date 
when  the  next  premium  or  instalment  thereof  is  payable. 

All  premiums  are  payable  in  advance  at  said  Home  Office  or  to  any  agent  of  the  Company  upon  delivery,  on  or  before  date  due,  of  a 
receipt  signed  by  the  President,  Vice-President,  Secretary  or  Actuary  of  the  Company  and  countersigned  by  said  agent. 

A  grace  of  thirty  days,  subject  to  an  interest  charge  at  the  rate  of  five  per  centum  per  annum  shall  be  granted  for  the  payment  of 
every  premium  after  the  first  year  during  which  time  the  insurance  shall  continue  in  force.  If  death  occur  within  the  days  of  grace  the 
unpaid  portion  of  the  premium  for  the  then  current  Policy  year  shall  be  deducted  from  the  amount  payable  hereunder. 

(EDnuittUHB. — The  Company  shall  be  released  from  all  liability  under  this  Policy  if  the  Insured  shall,  within  one  year  from  the  issue 
hereof,  become  engaged  in  or  connected  in  any  manner  with  the  manufacture  or  sale  of  ale,  wine,  beer  or  liquor,  unless  written  permission 
from  the  Secretary  of  the  Company  be  first  obtained.  If  the  Insured  within  one  year  from  the  issue  hereof  die  by  his  own  hand  or  act. 
whether  sane  or  insane,  the  Company  shall  not  be  liable  for  a  greater  sum  than  the  premiums  which  have  been  received  on  this  Policy. 

Kllrmttf  Stability. — This  Policy  shall  be  incontestable,  except  for  non-payment  of  premiums,  two  years  from  its  date. 

If  the  age  of  the  Insured  has  been  misstated,  the  amount  payable  hereunder  shall  be  such  as  the  premium  paid  would  have  purchased 
at  the  correct  age. 

Amount  of  Insurance  Payable  Premiums  Payable  for^i  Years  Non-Participating 

at  Death  or  until  Prior  Death 


mk 
mm 
%m 

wk 

mi 
m 
II 

m 

ill 

mm 

%j 

£3£i 

mm 
mi 


a 
I 


&  or*) 


Form  508Ord. 


•Nntl-llarltripatum. — This  Policy  is  not  entitled  to  participate  in  the  profits  or  divisible  surplus  of  the  Company. 

loans.— The  Company  at  any  time  will  advance  upon  the  sole  security  of  this  Policy  at  a  rate  of  interest  not  greater  than  five 
per  centum  per  annum,  a  sum  not  exceeding  the  amount  specified  in  the  table  of  loan  values  herein  set  forth,  deducting  therefrom  all 
other  indebtedness  hereon  to  the  Company.  Failure  to  repay  any  such  advance  or  interest  shall  not  avoid  this  Policy  unless  the  total  in- 
debtedness hereon  to  the  Company  shall  equal  or  exceed  eighty  per  centum  of  the  net  value  of  the  Policy,  and  thirty  days'  notice  shall 
have  been  given  by  the  Company. 

Amiimtmritt. — No  assignment  of  this  Policy  shall  be  binding  upon  the  Company  unless  it  be  filed  with  the  Company  at  its  said  Home 
Office.    The  Company  assumes  no  responsibility  as  to  the  validity  of  any  assignment. 

flPulimtB  mt  &urrmurr  nr  ICapae.— After  this  Policy  shall  have  been  in  force  three  full  years  it  may  be  surrendered  by  the  owner 
at  any  time  prior  to  any  default  or  within  three  months  after  any  default.  Thereupon, 

(1)  If  there  be  no  indebtedness  hereon  to  the  Company,  the  owner  may  elect  either  (a)  to  continue  the  insurance  in  force  for  its  face 
amount  without  participation,  and  without  the  right  to  loans;  or,  (b)  to  purchase  non-participating  paid-up  life  insurance  payable  at  the 
same  time  and  on  the  same  conditions  as  this  Policy.  The  periods  for  which  the  insurance  will  be  continued  and  the  amounts  of  paid-up 
life  insurance  which  will  be  allowed,  are  shown  in  the  table  of  surrender  values  herein  set  forth. 


TABLE  OF  LOAN  AND  SURRENDER  VALUES. 


AFTER 
POLICY  HAS 
BEEN  IN 
FORCE 

LOAN  VALUE 

PAID-UP 
LIFE  INSURANCE 

PAID-UP  CONTINUED  INSURANCE 
YEARS                        MONTHS  DAYS 

3 
4 
5 
6 
7 

o 
0 

9 
10 
11 
12 

13 
14 
15 
16 
17 
18 
19 
20 
Years 

ft  370 

ft  1,240 

4               2  0 

ft  680 

ft  1,650 

6              8  0 

*  810 

ft  2,050 

9              2  0 

*  1,050 

ft  2,510 

11              6  0 

*  1,290 

ft  3,020 

13              8  0 

t  1,540 

«  3,530 

15              6  0 

«  1,800 

ft  4,030 

17              2  0 

«  2,080 

ft  4,550 

18              7  0 

«  2,360 

ft  5,060 

19             10  0 

«  2,650 

ft  5,570 

20             10  0 

ft  2,950 

ft  6,070 

21             10  0 

ft  3,270 

ft  6,570 

22              9  0 

«  3,600 

ft  7,070 

23              7  0 

ft  3,930 

ft  7,560 

24              6  0 

ft  4,280 

$  8,060 

25              5  0 

ft  4,650 

t  8,660 

26              7  0 

«;  5,050 

ft  9,320 

28              1  0 

ft  6,540 

ft  10,000 

 LIFE  

Values  for  later  years  will  be  computed  on  the  same  basis  and  be  furnished  upon  request. 


(2)  If  there  be  an  indebtedness  hereon  to  the  Company,  it  shall  be  deducted  from  the  amount  which  otherwise  would  be  applicable 
as  a  surrender  value  to  the  purchase  of  temporary  insurance  for  the  period  aforesaid,  and  the  owner  may  elect  either  to  have  the  remainder 
applied  (a)  to  continue  the  insurance  in  force  without  participation  and  without  the  right  to  loans  for  the  face  amount  of  this  Policy,  less 
the  indebtedness,  or  (b)  to  purchase  a  proportionate  amount  of  non-participating  paid-up  life  insurance. 

If  in  the  event  of  any  default  in  the  payment  of  premium  or  otherwise,  after  the  Policy  shall  have  been  in  force  three  full  years,  the 
owner  shall  not  exercise  either  of  said  options  within  three  months  after  such  default,  the  insurance  shall  be  continued  as  provided  by  option 
(a)  in  either  paragraph  (1)  or  (2). 

In  any  case  of  continued  temporary  insurance  under  any  of  the  above  provisions  this  Policy  upon  evidence  satisfactory  to  the  Com- 
pany of  insurability  may  be  reinstated  within  the  first  three  years  of  the  term  for  which  the  insurance  is  continued  by  payment  of  arrears 
of  premiums  and  of  whatever  indebtedness  hereon  to  the  Company  existed  at  the  date  of  surrender  or  default,  with  interest  at  a  rate  not 
exceeding  five  per  centum  per  annum. 

S&abta  of  grttlrmrttt  — The  Insured  or  the  owner  or  the  beneficiary  after  the  Insured's  death,  in  case  the  Insured  shall  have  made 
no  election,  may  by  written  notice  to  the  Company  at  its  Home  Office,  elect  to  have  the  net  sum  payable  under  this  Policy  upon  the  death 
of  the  Insured  paid  either  in  cash  or  as  follows: 

(1)  By  the  payment  of  an  annuity  equal  to  three  per  centum  of  such  net  sum  payable  at  the  end  of  each  year  during  the  lifetime 
of  the  beneficiary,  and  by  the  payment  upon  the  death  of  the  beneficiary  of  the  said  net  sum,  together  with  any  accrued  portion  of  the 
annuity  for  the  year  then  current,  unless  otherwise  directed  in  said  notice,  to  the  beneficiary's  legal  representatives  or  assigns. 

(2)  By  the  payment  of  equal  annual  instalments  for  a  specified  number  of  years,  the  first  instalment  being  payable  immediately,  in 
accordance  with  the  following  table  for  each  one  thousand  dollars  of  said  net  sum. 

(3)  By  the  payment  of  equal  annual  instalments  payable  at  the  beginning  of  each  year  for  a  fixed  period  of  twenty  years  and  for 
so  many  years  longer  as  the  beneficiary  shall  survive,  in  accordance  with  the  following  table  for  each  one  thousand  dollars  of  said  net  sum. 

Any  instalments  payable  under  (2)  or  (J)  which  shall  not  have  been  paid  prior  to  the  death  of  the  beneficiary  shall  be  paid,  unless 
otherwise  directed  in  said  notice,  to  the  beneficiary's  legal  representatives  or  assigns. 


When  an  y  option  calling  for  annual  payments  is  elected,  this  Policy  shall  be  surrendered  upon  its  maturity  and  a  supplementary  non 
participating  contract  shall  be  issued  for  the  option  elected. 

Unless  otherwise  specified  by  the  owner  or  by  the  beneficiary  in  making  such  election,  the  beneficiary  may  at  any  time  surrender  the 
contract  guaranteeing  the  payment  of  instalments,  for  the  commuted  value  of  the  payments  yet  to  be  made,  computed  upon  the  same  basis 
as  option  (2)  in  the  following  table;  provided  that  no  such  surrender  and  commutation  will  be  made  under  option  (3),  except  after  the 
death  of  the  beneficiary  occurring  within  the  aforesaid  twenty  years: 


TABLE  OF  INSTALMENTS  FOR  EACH  $1,000. 


OPTION  (2) 

OPTION  (3) 

Number  of 

Annual 
Instalments 

Amount  of  Each 

Number  of 

Annual 
Instalments 

Amount  of  Each 

Age  of 
Beneficiary 

Amount  of  Each 

Age  of 
Beneficiary 

Amount  of  Each 

Age  of 
Beneficiary 

Amount  of  Each 

Instalment 

Instalment 

at  Death  of 
Insured 

Instalment 

at  Death  of 
Insured 

Instalment 

at  Death  of 
Insured 

Instalment 

1 

$1000.00 

11 

$104.92 

10 

$39.52 

-  

30 

$44.98 

50 

$56.60 

2 

507.39 

12 

97.53 

11 

39.70 

31 

45.39 

51 

57.30 

3 

343.23 

13 

91.29 

12 

39.89 

32 

45.82 

52 

57.99 

4 

261.19 

14 

85.94 

13 

40.08 

33 

46.27 

53 

58.66 

5 

211.99 

15 

81.32 

14 

40.28 

34 

46.74 

54 

59.33 

6 

179.22 

16 

77.29 

15 

40.49 

35 

47.23 

55 

59.97 

7 

155.83 

17 

73.74 

16 

40.71 

36 

47.73 

56 

60.58 

8 

138.30 

18 

70.59 

17 

40.94 

37 

48.26 

57 

61.17 

9 

124.69 

19 

67.78 

18 

41.18 

38 

48.80 

58 

61.72 

10 

113.81 

20 

65.25 

19 

41.43 

39 

49.36 

59 

62.23 

20 

41.69 

40 

49.95 

60 

62.71 

21 

41.96 

41 

50.55 

61 

63.15 

22 

42.24 

42 

51.17 

62 

63.54 

23 

42.53 

43 

51.80 

63 

63.89 

24 

42.84 

44 

52.46 

64 

64.19 

25 

43.16 

45 

53.12 

65 

64.45 

26 

43.49 

46 

53.81 

66 

64.67 

27 

43.84 

47 

54.50 

67 

68  r, 

64.85 

28 

44.21 

48 

55.19 

65.00 

29 

44.59 

49 

55.89 

No  person  except  an  Executive  Officer  of  the  Company  as  aforesaid  has  power  to  modify,  or  in  event  of  lapse  to  reinstate,  this  Policy 
or  to  extend  the  time  for  paying  a  premium. 


3ln  Witttfaa  Wtyttaf,  ttye  Company  Ijaa  tmxatb  ttjia  $ oliro,  to  be  txsntitb  ifog  &inst 

llag  nf   January,  /9Q8  — 

Sample  ^Policy. 


NOTICE  TO  POLICY-HOLDER 

Payments  are  invalid  unless 

made  In  exchange  for  an  official  Home  Office  receipt  signed  by  an  Executive  Officer  (President,  Vice-President,  Secretary  or 
Actuary)  of  the  Company  and  countersigned  by  the  Company's  Cashier  at  the  Home  Office  or  the  Superintendent  of  the  District. 

The  Company's  agents  have  no  authority 

to  waive  forfeiture,  alter  or  amend  the  contract,  to  accept  premiums  in  arrears  or  to  extend  due  date  of  such  premiums. 
Privilege  of  voting  for  Directors. 

The  holder  of  this  Policy  while  it  remains  in  force,  after  one  year  from  its  date,  will  have  a  right  to  vote,  either  in  person,  or  by 
proxy  or  by  mail,  at  the  election  of  Directors  of  the  Company,  which  is  held  in  New  York  on  the  second  Tuesday  in  April  each 
year.    For  particulars  how  to  vote,  apply  to  the  Secretary,  No.  1  Madison  Avenue,  New  York  City. 

'  Notify  the  Home  Office,  1  Madison  Avenue,  New  York  City,  of  any  change  in  your  address,  and  give  the  Policy  number  in  any 
communication  to  the  Company. 


NEW  YORK  STANDARD  LIFE  INSURANCE  POLICY 

A^&t^if  Limited  Payment  Life 


Age. 


40 


.Years 
Amount  $  500 


AmUCl    Premium  $  J2i2 


No. 


(Jtrmpamr, 


3to  (Enrtsiorratuut 


of  tbr_ 


.annual  prrmtum  of_ 


Uollara, 


_bag,  of_ 


fanuary • 


anb  of  tiff  paumr nt  of  a  like  amount  upon  rarfy   

 fyrrpnftrr  until  -20  full  gears*  prrmtumB  sljall  Ijaw?  brrn  paib  or  until  tljr  prior  bratb.  of  thr  insure  b, 

=====  promises  to  pay  ===== 

at  tljr  i^avat  (§ffirr  of  tor  CCompang  in  Iljr  (Sitg  of  Nr-nt  ||urk  upon  rr-rript  at  Baib  Ijamr-  (©ffirr-  of  bup  proof 

of  the  bratb  of    -  fattieS  &  tfiltipSM   , 

nf   New  Xjcrk  ,  (Sount0  of   View  Zferk  ,  ftatr  of   Xewjjerk  , 


hcrrin  rallr-b  Iljr  3Jnsurrb, 


Jive  hundred 


.dollars 


Ir-sa  any  tnbrbtr-bnr-as  grreon  to  lljr  fflompang  anb  ang  nnpaib  portion  of  trjc  premium,  for  tljr  tfjrn  rurrent 

pnltrg  grar  upon  snrrrnbrr  of  tljis  $olirg,  properly  rrrripteb.  to   Catherine  A.  tiimpsen  -— — 

—  wife  ef  the  Mured  bmtfaiatU  ntiili_£Kf  right  of  wooration. 

(Cljangr  Ot  Smrfiriarg. — When  the  right  of  revocation  has  been  reserved,  or  in  case  of  the  death  of  any  beneficiary  under  either  a 
revocable  or  irrevocable  designation,  the  Insured,  if  there  be  no  existing  assignment  of  the  Policy  made  as  herein  provided,  may.  while  the 
Policy  is  in  force,  designate  a  new  beneficiary  with  or  without  reserving  right  of  revocation  by  filing  written  notice  thereof  at  the  Home 
Office  of  the  Company,  accompanied  by  the  Policy  for  suitable  endorsement  thereon.  Such  change  shall  take  effect  upon  the  endorsement 
of  the  same  on  the  Policy  by  the  Company.  If  any  beneficiary  shall  die  before  the  Insured  the  interest  of  such  beneficiary  shall  vest  in 
the  Insured. 

JIaijmrnt  flf  Jlrf munrtH. — The  Company  will  accept  payment  of  premiums  at  other  times  than  as  stated  above,  as  follows 


Except  as  herein  provided  the  payment  of  a  premium  or  instalment  thereof  shall  not  maintain  the  Policy  in  force  beyond  the  date 
when  the  next  premium  or  instalment  thereof  is  payable. 

AH  premiums  are  payable  in  advance  at  said  Home  Office  or  to  any  agent  of  the  Company  upon  delivery,  on  or  before  date  due,  of  a 
receipt  signed  by  the  President,  Vice-President,  Secretary  or  Actuary  of  the  Company  and  countersigned  by  said  agent. 

A  grace  of  thirty  days,  subject  to  an  interest  charge  at  the  rate  of  five  per  centum  per  annum  shall  be  granted  for  the  payment  of 
every  premium  after  the  first  year  during  which  time  the  insurance  shall  continue  in  force.  If  death  occur  within  the  days  of  grace  the 
unpaid  portion  of  the  premium  for  the  then  current  Policy  year  shall  be  deducted  from  the  amount  payable  hereunder. 

(CimMtinltfi. — The  Company  shall  be  released  from  all  liability  under  this  Policy  if  the  Insured  shall,  within  one  year  from  the  issue 
hereof,  become  engaged  in  or  connected  in  any  manner  with  the  manufacture  or  sale  of  ale,  wine,  beer  or  liquor,  unless  written  permission 
from  the  Secretary  of  the  Company  be  first  obtained.  If  the  Insured  within  one  year  from  the  issue  hereof  die  by  his  own  hand  or  act, 
whether  sane  or  insane,  the  Company  shall  not  be  liable  for  a  greater  sum  than  the  premiums  which  have  been  received  on  this  Policy. 

ihtrntttPHtabtlitU,. — This  Policy  shall  be  incontestable,  except  for  non-payment  of  premiums,  two  years  from  its  date. 

If  the  age  of  the  Insured  has  been  misstated,  the  amount  payable  hereunder  shall  be  such  as  the  premium  paid  would  have  purchased 
at  the  correct  age. 

J0_Years 


Amount  of  Insurance  Payable 
at  Death 


Premiums  Payable  for- 

or  until  Prior  Death 


Non-Participating 


Form  508Int. 


SNnjl-Partiripalum. — This  Policy  is  not  entitled  to  participate  in  the  profits  or  divisible  surplus  of  the  Company. 

Coailfl.— The  Company  at  any  time  will  advance  upon  the  sole  security  of  this  Policy  at  a  rate  of  interest  not  gTeater  than  five 
per  centum  per  annum,  a  sum  not  exceeding  the  amount  specified  in  the  table  of  loan  values  herein  set  forth,  deducting  therefrom  all 
other  indebtedness  hereon  to  the  Company.  Failure  to  repay  any  such  advance  or  interest  shall  not  avoid  this  Policy  unless  the  total  in- 
di  btedness  hereon  to  the  Company  shall  equal  or  exceed  eighty  per  centum  of  the  net  value  of  the  Policy,  and  thirty  days'  notice  shall 

have  been  given  by  the  Company. 

ABBUJttmrnt — No  assignment  of  this  Policy  shall  be  binding  upon  the  Company  unless  it  be  filed  with  the  Company  at  its  said  Home 
Office.    The  Company  assumes  no  responsibility  as  to  the  validity  of  any  assignment. 

©jftimtB  OH  &urrrubrr  or  Hjapap.— After  this  Policy  shall  have  been  in  force  three  full  years  it  may  be  surrendered  by  the  owner 
at  any  time  prior  to  any  default  or  within  three  months  after  any  default.  Thereupon, 

(1)  If  there  be  no  indebtedness  hereon  to  the  Company,  the  owner  may  elect  either  (a)  to  continue  the  insurance  in  force  for  its  face 
amount  without  participation,  and  without  the  right  to  loans;  or,  (b)  to  purchase  non-participating  paid-up  life  insurance  payable  at  the 
same  time  and  on  the  same  conditions  as  this  Policy.  The  periods  for  which  the  insurance  will  be  continued  and  the  amounts  of  paid-up 
life  insurance  which  will  be  allowed,  are  shown  in  the  table  of  surrender  values  herein  set  forth. 

TABLE  OF  LOAN  AND  SURRENDER  VALUES. 


AFTER 
POLICY  HAS 
BEEN  IN 
FORCE 


3 
4 
5 
6 
7 
8 
9 
10 
11 
12 
13 
14 
15 
16 
17 
18 
19 
20 
Years 


LOAN  VALUE 


g  27 


-40- 


g  54 
g  68 


83 


t  98 


g  113 


g  129 


g  146 


S^L63 


g  180 


g  198 


g  217 


g-236 


-  256 
%  277 


300 


PAID-UP 
LIFE  INSURANCE 


-64_ 


$- 
g- 
g  106 


-84_ 


S  131 


-155- 


g  181 


$-206- 


-230 


g  255 


279 


g  303 


g  328 


352 


g  377 


JLQ2_ 


g  429 
g  464 


500- 


PAID-UP  CONTINUED  INSURANCE 


YEARS 

MONTHS 

DAYS 

3 

n 

 5  

 7  

0 

 1  

 1  

 0  

 8  

5 

0 

 9  

 8  

 0  

 10  

 9  

0 

 11  

 10  

 0  

 12  

9 

 0  

 13  

 7  

0 

 14  

5 

0 

15 

2 

0 

16 

0 

0 

16 

9 

0 

17 

8 

0 

18 

7 

0 

19 

10 

0 

fi 

0 

Values  for  later  years  will  be  computed  on  the  same  basis  and  be  furnished  upon  request. 


(2)  If  there  be  an  indebtedness  hereon  to  the  Company,  it  shall  be  deducted  from  the  amount  which  otherwise  would  be  applicable 
as  a  surrender  value  to  the  purchase  of  temporary  insurance  for  the  period  aforesaid,  and  the  owner  may  elect  either  to  have  the  remainder 
applied  (a)  to  continue  the  insurance  in  force  without  participation  and  without  the  right  to  loans  for  the  face  amount  of  this  Policy,  less 
the  indebtedness,  or  (b)  to  purchase  a  proportionate  amount  of  non-participating  paid-up  life  insurance. 

If  in  the  event  of  any  default  in  the  payment  of  premium  or  otherwise,  after  the  Policy  shall  have  been  in  force  three  full  years,  the 
owner  shall  not  exercise  either  of  said  options  within  three  months  after  such  default,  the  insurance  shall  be  continued  as  provided  by  option 
(a)  in  either  paragraph  (1)  or  (2). 

In  any  case  of  continued  temporary  insurance  under  any  of  the  above  provisions  this  Policy  upon  evidence  satisfactory  to  the  Com- 
pany of  insurability  may  be  reinstated  within  the  first  three  years  of  the  term  for  which  the  insurance  is  continued  by  payment  of  arrears 
of  premiums  and  of  whatever  indebtedness  hereon  to  the  Company  existed  at  the  date  of  surrender  or  default,  with  interest  at  a  rate  not 
exceeding  five  per  centum  per  annum. 

ffiabta  of  Btttitrntnt  . — The  Insured  or  the  owner  or  the  beneficiary  after  the  Insured's  death,  in  case  the  Insured  shall  have  made 
no  election,  may  by  written  notice  to  the  Company  at  its  Home  Office,  elect  to  have  the  net  sum  payable  under  this  Policy  upon  the  death 
of  the  Insured  paid  either  in  cash  or  as  follows: 

(1)  By  the  payment  of  an  annuity  equal  to  three  per  centum  of  such  net  sum  payable  at  the  end  of  each  year  during  the  lifetime 
of  the  beneficiary,  and  by  the  payment  upon  the  death  of  the  beneficiary  of  the  said  net  sum,  together  with  any  accrued  portion  of  the 
annuity  for  the  year  then  current,  unless  otherwise  directed  in  said  notice,  to  the  beneficiary's  legal  representatives  or  assigns. 

(2)  By  the  payment  of  equal  annual  instalments  for  a  specified  number  of  years,  the  first  instalment  being  payable  immediately,  in 
accordance  with  the  following  table  for  each  one  thousand  dollars  of  said  net  sum. 

■  (3)  By  the  payment  of  equal  annual  instalments  payable  at  the  beginning  of  each  year  for  a  fixed  period  of  twenty  years  and  for 
so  many  years  longer  as  the  beneficiary  shall  survive,  in  accordance  with  the  following  table  for  each  one  thousand  dollars  of  said  net  sum. 

Any  instalments  payable  under  (2)  or  (3)  which  shall  not  have  been  paid  prior  to  the  death  of  the  beneficiary  shall  be  paid,  unless 
otherwise  directed  in  said  notice,  to  the  beneficiary's  legal  representatives  or  assigns. 


When  any  option  calling  for  annual  payments  is  elected,  this  Policy  shall  be  surrendered  upon  its  maturity  and  a  supplementary  non- 
participating  contract  shall  be  issued  for  the  option  elected. 

Unless  otherwise  specified  by  the  owner  or  by  the  beneficiary  in  making  such  election,  the  beneficiary  may  at  any  time  surrender  the 
contract  guaranteeing  the  payment  of  instalments,  for  the  commuted  value  of  the  payments  yet  to  be  made,  computed  upon  the  same  basis 
as  option  (2)  in  the  following  table;  provided  that  no  such  surrender  and  commutation  will  be  made  under  option  (3),  except  after  the 
death  of  the  beneficiary  occurring  within  the  aforesaid  twenty  years: 


TABLE  OF  INSTALMENTS  FOR  EACH  $1,000. 


OPTION  (2) 

OPTION  (3) 

Number  of 

Annual 
Instalments 

Amount  of  each 

Number  ol 

Annual 
Instalments 

Amount  of  kacb 

Age  of 
Beneficiary 

Amount  or  each 

Age  of 
Beneficiary 

Amount  of  tach 

Age  of 
Beneficiary 

Amount  of  bach 

Instalment 

Instalment 

at  Death  of 
Insured 

Instalment 

at  Death  of 
Insured 

Instalment 

at  Death  of 
Insured 

Instalment 

1 

$1000.00 

11 

$104.92 

10 

$39.52 

30 

$44.98 

50 

$56.60 

2 

507.39 

12 

97.53 

11 

39.70 

31 

45.39 

51 

57.30 

3 

343.23 

13 

91.29 

12 

39.89 

32 

45.82 

52 

57.99 

4 

261.19 

14 

85.94 

13 

40.08 

33 

46.27 

53 

58.66 

5 

211.99 

15 

81.32 

14 

40.28 

34 

46.74 

54 

59.33 

6 

179.22 

16 

77.29 

15 

40.49 

35 

47.23 

55 

59.97 

7 

155.83 

17 

73.74 

16 

40.71 

36 

47.73 

56 

60.58 

8 

138.30 

18 

70.59 

17 

40.94 

37 

48.26 

57 

61.17 

9 

124.69 

19 

67.78 

18 

41.18 

38 

48.80 

58 

61.72 

10 

113.81 

20 

65.25 

19 

41.43 

39 

49.36 

59 

62.23 

20 

41.69 

40 

49.95 

60 

62.71 

21 

41.96 

41 

50.55 

61 

63.15 

22 

42.24 

42 

51.17 

62 

63.54 

23 

42.53 

43 

51.80 

63 

63.89 

24 

42.84 

44 

52.46 

64 

64.19 

25 

43.16 

45 

53.12 

65 

64.45 

26 

43.49 

46 

53.81 

66 

64.67 

27 

43.84 

47 

54.50 

67 

64.85 

28 

44.21 

48 

55.19 

65.00 

29 

44.59 

49 

55.89 

No  person  except  an  Executive  Officer  of  the  Company  as  aforesaid  has  power  to  modify,  or  in  event  of  lapse  to  reinstate,  this  Policy 
or  to  extend  the  time  for  paying  a  premium. 


3lu  Wttttffia  Wtyrtaf,  %  (Company  Ijaa  rauaeb  tifta  Polirg  to  bt  exttxxttb  tt|t«  &irst 

i)ag  nf          January.  7908  —  T 


Sample  ^Policy. 


NOTICE  TO  POLICY-HOLDER 

Payments  are  invalid  unless 

made  in  exchange  for  an  official  Home  Office  receipt  signed  by  an  Executive  Officer  (President,  Vice-President,  Secretary  or 
Actuary)  of  the  Company  and  countersigned  by  the  Company's  Cashier  at  the  Home  Office  or  the  Superintendent  of  the  District. 

The  Company's  agents  have  no  authority 

to  waive  forfeiture,  alter  or  amend  the  contract,  to  accept  premiums  in  arrears  or  to  extend  due  date  of  such  premiums. 
Privilege  of  voting  for  Directors. 

The  holder  of  this  Policy  while  it  remains  in  force,  after  one  year  from  its  date,  will  have  a  right  to  vote,  either  in  person,  or  by 
proxy  or  by  mail,  at  the  election  of  Directors  of  the  Company,  which  is  held  in  New  York  on  the  second  Tuesday  in  April  each 
year.    For  particulars  how  to  vote,  apply  to  the  Secretary,  No.  1  Madison  Avenue,  New  York  City. 

Notify  the  Home  Office,  1  Madison  Avenue,  New  York  City,  of  any  change  in  your  address,  and  give  the  Policy  number  in  any 
communication  to  the  Company. 


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